This coin was in a dealer's clearance offerings for half-price, and I believe it was worth the small outlay. The reverse presents Sol in the scarce variety of standing right, facing left, with spread chalmys. If you wanted to collect a high-grade example of this variety, you would head over to the Trier mint where you would shell out a pretty penny, but easily come away with a "museum quality" coin - whatever that means. (I think the dealers that use that term have likely never darkened the doors of a museum.) The variety is scarce to begin with - Sol is found far more often standing left. I believe the type is even scarcer coming out of Lugdunum. RIC lists one coin with these particular mint marks, referenced to the Oxford Collection, with the obverse legend CONSTANTINVS AVG as R4. This legend-variant may of course be listed elsewhere, but RIC is all I've got. Constantine I AE Follis, 18mm, 2.8g; Lugdunum mint: 316 Obv.: IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG; laureate, cuirassed bust right. Rev.: SOLI INVIC-TO COMITI; Sol standing right, looking left, chalmys spread, holding globe / A / S // PLG Reference: RIC VII, Lyon 62 (legend variant)
great cooler JA, that one is very pretty. lol...yeah, "museum quality". i think every coin we all have is "museum quality".
Pays to know your stuff, I would have skimmed right over it, lol. But this isnt my favorite era anyways. Nice buy/catch JA.
JA => very cool new pick-up => I'm lovin' the eye-appealing green patina ... Oh, and "Sol" is definitely a very sweet reverse figure (I'm pretty sure that I only have one Sol example? ... a Florianus Antoninianus) ... your new coin is a very cool pick-up (congrats, coin-bro)
Sol appears to have done a lot of fidgeting around while posing for these coins. Here are two from Trier shop B (yes, they do have different obverse legends). Note how Sol shifts his weight from one leg to the other and loses the drapery from one shoulder between the two. We have to ask the question of how important such matters are to our way of collecting and also if we can see any pattern to the differences that make it seem more than just random variation. I know there are specialists in Sol coinage that take these things more seriously than I do but they probably care nothing for some of the Septimius Severus variations that mean more to me. We each will have our own patterns. My two coins also point out another question for each to address. These two coins have very different style in portrait and reverse figure. Is one better or does it make no difference and we will accept either as a coin from a period of less than the finest workmanship? I prefer the style of the top coin but not all may agree. We also may differ in how we describe the two poses. Are both facing or is one right and one left?
Those are beautiful coins, Doug. In my eyes they represent two different styles, equally well-executed, and I would prefer to like them both equally well.
