"Rare" Constantine I AE3 Two Victories Reverse (London Mint)

Well folks, yet another London Mint coin for me. This one is marked R1 in the rarity index by RIC (Only 12 or less coins known to exist), which probably means it's actually not that rare and there could be a few dozen...maybe even a hundred coins known to exist. RIC was never that accurate when it came to his rarity index. But either way it should be "rare" enough!

The obverse features that despicable monster, Constantine the "Great," with a helmet. There is mild pitting by the helmet area, but is otherwise pristine.

The reverse features a worn die, with part of the lettering for VOT PR being struck rather weak, and you can see the weak strike as well on some of the legend around the edge of the reverse. But it's otherwise pristine.

The patina is glossy dark


Constantine I
AE 3 3.52 g, 17.57mm
London Mint Circa 319-320 CE
IMP CONSTANTI_NVS AG
High-crested helmeted, three pellets in crossbar, cuirassed bust left, spear over right shoulder/ VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP Two Victories, standing facing each other, inscribing shield with VOT | PR above altar with diamond pattern, dot in each corner of altar and one in center / PLN in exergue
RIC VII, 159 (R1)

 

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Nice score Sallent
As you noticed, R1 in RIC doesn't mean a lot for those (except for people wanting to sell them for big bucks)

I can toss in my Ticinium VLPP example :


Constantine The Great, AE3 Ticinium mint, 3rd officina
IMP CONSTAN - TINVS MAX AVG, Draped, cuirassed bust of Constantinus right, wearing laureate helmet
VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP, Two victories, holding shield on wich is written VOT/PR, resting on cippus. TT at exergue
3.2 gr
Ref : RC #3883 var

Q

 

And yes, how silly of me to forget, please post any relevant coins (London coins, Constantine coins, or any other LRB with similar themes, or perhaps R1 LRB's, etc).

@Cucumbor , that is a very sweet coin.

 

is there a pic at the bottom (below your attribution) i can't see sallent?

 

I have no idea what that is. I copy/pasted the description from the dealer's website. Maybe it's some formatting issues. I tried to get rid of it but I can't. Oh well.

 

@Cucumbor: Just to illustrate how wrong RIC rarity is, here is how many I've found on sale for this R1 coin:

6 on vcoins
2 on Ebay

So that's 8 on sale from the largest venues in the world where ancient coins can be purchased. I would say most common reverses for just about any Emperor you can think off will yield 30 to 50 examples on sale at any given time, so only 8 on sale would in fact confirm it is not a very common coin, but definitely not the super-rare coin RIC would suggest. A more accurate label would be "Uncommon" and I bet the reality is there are probably 120 or so in collectors' hands and about two dozen in dealer' hands, and probably two dozen or so in museums.

It's just like the Gordian III denarius with Gordian riding on horseback. Just the other day @Smojo pointed out to me that despite that coin being "rare" according to RIC, you could probably find a dozen on sale at any given time, which would suggest it's probably "Somewhat Uncommon" but definitely far from rare.

 

here's a constantine i i recently reshot...



Constantine I, 307 -337 A.D.

O: CONSTANTINVS AVG, helmeted and cuirassed bust right, R: VIRTVS EXERCIT, vexillum inscribed VOT / XX, two captives seated at base facing outward, , S left, F right, AQP in exergue, Aquileia mint, 18 mm, 2.8g, RIC VII Aquileia 48.

 

And here again is my other Constantine I from London

 

Great JOB @Sallent ! Man, are you hitting your Targets?! What a gorgeous and unique looking coin.

I am going to post a (quote) "Rare" of mine, and I just went out to look up what the Rarity on mine means... (I actually thought the R5 meant it was on the lower end of the Rarity scale...)

I really do not collect Roman Empire coins, except, I have been expanding into Empire Quinarii...


RI Constantius I Chlorus 293-306 CE DIVO AE Quinarius Thesalonika 317-318 Seated RIC VII 25 R5 RARE

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=ric rarity

RIC VII (1966)C3: [Common] more than 41 coins known
C2: [Common] 31-40 coins known
C1: [Common] 22-30 coins known
S: [Scarce] 16-21 coins known
R1: [Rare] 11-15 coins known
R2: [Rare] 7-10 coins known
R3: [Rare] 4-6 coins known
R4: [Very Rare] 2-3 coins known
R5: Unique [only one in the collections examined]

I really have no clue how valid this truly is for my coin...

 

All I have left to complete my 2017 list is one Indian coin and a Greek fractional. Both are common and it would be less than $200 to get both.

The London mint coins are all targets of opportunity. I didnt plan on getting them...it just happened. I came, I saw, I purchased. Veni, vidi, emi. That's almost as catchy as the original phrase.

 

LOL! Nice phrase. $200 bucks, and you are ALL done! Well, yeah... maybe... Enjoy...

 

Two coins and I'm done with the basic list I made for 2017. Obviously it does not mean I stop buying coins completely.

So far Ive bought 28 coins in 2017.

18 were on my list of themes/rulers/places to get...and 10 were targets of opportunity that were not on my list, but presented themselves unexpectedly.

2 more and my list of 20 coins I made for 2017 is done, but the year is still young and plenty of other targets of opportunity out there. Last year I bought 68 coins. This year's final haul should be at least 50...probably more!

 

Great progress! Looks like you sand-bagged your Target list... Need to challenge yourself!

Last year I captured over 300 Ancients, and and over 50 gold moderns... I have slowed my Ancients pace down a bit, by my average spend is probably higher... Ugh, I need to get everything into excel... My JPEG database does not track $.

 

Well, Im still a new collector, so a lot of the coins that are considered "common" by you guys are still new to me and I don't have them yet. So the going is still easy. Eventually the day will come when I've aquired most of the common and readily available types we all consider the staple of ancient coin collecting. Im sure once I get there and I start going after rarer types, it will be well into the year before I complete my target list.

 

Enjoy! The Journey is the best part!

 

I love the London output but realised it was too big to add as another focusn

Constantine the Great - Follis

Obv:– CONSTANTINVS AVG, Laureate, bust right wearing trabea, holding eagle tipped sceptre in right hand
Rev:– BEAT TRANQLITAS, Altar inscribed VOT/IS/XX, surmounted by globe with plain vertical lines and diagonals between horizontal lines, three stars above
Minted in London (//PLON). A.D. 323 - 324
Reference:– RIC VII London 267

 

Beautiful coin @Sallent

My only Constantine.

Constantine I. Follis. Constantinople (328-9)

Obv: CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG, rosette-diademed, draped bust right

Rev: CONSTANTINIANA DAFNE, Victory seated left on cippus, looking right, holding palm branch in each hand, trophy in background, captive seated left at foot.

Officina letter B in left field. Mintmark CONS star.

RIC VII 38 (R4). EF-/EF. Very scarce.

Ex: Dattari Collection

Jesus Vico Auction 147 March 9, 2017

 

I must know, is the color true to life? Because if it is, thats seriously impressive.

 

Agreed! @Orfew that is a nice tone!

 

Yours is a very pretty coin @Sallent. Here is my not so example:


CONSTANTINE I
AE3 Follis
OBVERSE: IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust left, spear over far shoulder
REVERSE: VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP, two Victories standing facing holding shield inscribed VOT/PR on altar decorated with diamond (Helv. 2a), PLN in ex.
Struck at London 319-20 AD
2.8g, 20mm
RIC VII 159