I’m very conscious of relying heavily on other people’s expertise so with regard to this coin from my father’s collection. I’ve looked at lots of examples and I’m sticking my neck out at the risk of getting it horribly wrong! This coin is copper or bronze, 19mm diameter and about 5g in weight The mint mark is ?T which I presume we can take to be Tricinum, Italy. The preceding letter looks like an ’O’ but has almost certainly lost its bottom half. If it’s PT then it’s P(ecunia) T(ricinum) The bust has two short diagonal lines at centre top which suggests a laureate bust. It may be that I’m seeing what I want to see but I think the obverse legend is (IM)P CONSTANT (INVS P F AVG), i.e. Constantine the Great. The very strong jaw line is consistent with other busts of him that I’ve looked at. The shoulders are too worn to be able to tell if it's a draped or cuirassed bust. The reverse is certainly SOL and from other examples: SOLI IN (VI) CTO C(OMITI), Sol, standing front, head left, raising right hand and holding globe in left. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki says: While previous emperors dedicated the coins to "Soli Invicto," Constantine coins are dedicated to "Soli Invicto Comiti” which reinforces my supposition that this is indeed a coin of Constantine the Great And this is where I really come unstuck. I could play safe and say it’s an AE3, but is it fact a follis?
Of the sad truths we face, the guys at the Rome mint just did not make their R's the way we would. RT, R*, RP
It's actually a follis of Dr. Spock, who time traveled and clearly violated the Prime Directive. Regarding your "follis/AE3" query, those terms are not mutually exclusive. "Follis" (or sometimes "nummus") is fairly general term for any number of late bronze coins; AE3 is really a size designation for folles. So one could say this coin is both an "AE3" and a follis. And as others have pointed out, it was struck in the Rome mint, not Ticinum. Good for trying to ID it yourself. You got 90% of it. This coin, BTW, is my avatar.
