Hello, I recently was given this coin. I am not an ancient collector, but would like to know more about it. The coin appears to be made of copper and is about the size of a modern US cent. The back has Greek writing on it, but I (sheepishly admit) I don't recognize a lot of the letters because they are in lower case and I am only familiar with upper case Greek letters. I say it might be Byzantine because, even though Greek writing is on it, the style just doesn't "feel" like the coins I have been looking at online. I wonder if it is Byzantine / medieval? Any ideas?
What does AE3 Bronze mean? Is that the denomination? Any idea who could be on the obverse or why the back has Greek writing if it is a Roman coin?
It's a votive issue of Constantine II from the Siscia mint. Here's a coin in better condition for comparison.
AE3 refers to the size, around 20mm, 3.5g, give or take a few. The alphabet is Roman, not Greek. It can look unfamiliar to modern eyes because the shapes of the letters can be quite different than what we're accustomed to.
The coins of the sons of Constantine the Great can be hard to separate on lower grade coins. Around the reverse edge is CAESARVM NOSTRORVM or "of our Caesars" and was used by each of the then current Caesars. I suggest you research the whole family together rather than just one member whichever you decide is on this coin. It dates from the time when Constantine I was alive and issued coins for each of his family members using the same types. After his death the boys traded in the title Caesar for Augustus, split up the empire and fought with each other. The type was issued by several mints as shown by the mintmark at the bottom of the reverse. I could not read yours but have no reason to question those who above identified it. These are very common coins in general and few people show interest in collecting them by minor variations. I have a short discussion of Vota coins here: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/dd09.html There is one shown for Constantine's son Crispus that you can compare to John Antony's coin above.
Sorry, that wasn't my coin, just an example I grabbed off vcoins. The mint is readable, but he's got the reverse rotated so that it sits at 10 o'clock.
