Hi all! I was going through one of the large lots of Nummi that I bought recently, and found this rather nice condition nummus of Constantius II. Interestingly, it appears to have the obverse legend FL IVL CONSTANTIVS N, of which I can only find one other example, which has the bust left instead of right. I have also looked on RIC online, but with no success. The reverse of the coin is the usual GLORIA EXERCITVS The other coin on acsearch: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=422680 It's quite hard to see (due to my notoriously poor photography skills), but the coins is from Trier mint, with TRP in exergue. I also found this one, also of Constantius II, which appears to have the obverse legend FL IVL CONSTANTIVS A. There doesn't seem to be space for any more letters after that Does anyone have any ideas on these? Might they be unique coins, or maybe someone knows of a reference? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
The western mint issues were extensively imitated, so it’s likely an unofficial coin in reasonably good style
Agree. Trier is a mint where we do not easily draw a line between official and imitations. In general, I wonder how many cases there are of unofficial coins being made that are as good as or better than the real thing.
Very interesting, but could the first one end actually in N C? I think I can see a faint smallish letter after the N.
Possibly... I've had a look under a microscope, but it's difficult to see what might be after the last line of the N (whether it is a C or just part of the cuirass), as it's off the flan. I can find one example of an FL IVL CONSTANTIVS N C coin, and it's an imitation on the Augustus Coins website http://augustuscoins.com/ed/imit/imitGE.html (About 4/5 down the page) Thanks! It didn't occur to me they might be imitations - I guess I'm just too used to dealing with crummy barbarous radiates Interestingly, a lot of the coins they came with appear to be official, and all are of good style. They are all almost certainly from the same hoard. In that case, they probably did pass as official coins. Most of the coins are Constantine I, Constantine II, Constantius II, Constans, and some of Helena Now that I look at them, a couple of the coins exhibit some signs that they might be imitations. This one has TRC (rather than TRP or PLC) mintmark R•S mintmark (this one in not so great a shape) Others, however, I suspect are probably official. This is one of the few coins from the lot not from Trier mint (and is from Constantinople instead). It has an interesting design on the shield on the reverse (maybe the rivets in the wood?). The wreath in the left field is also possibly too intricate for an imitation. Unfortunately, the obverse is corroded Others are just of good style and are pretty well struck, and also include some officina marks on the reverse (in the exergue or centre field) Two palms
