I received this Constantine Ist in the mail today. I tried to look it up in wildwinds but am not sure what Ric # it is. I see RIC VII 49 D, and RIC VII 49 . Is mine the RIC VII 49 D ? Or should it be RIC VII 49 A ?
RIC VII 49 has a helmet decorated with two stars whereas RIC VII 49D does not. Therefore your coin which does have two stars on the helmet would be closer to RIC VII 49. Keep in mind that the RIC is more exhaustive than Wildwinds.com so there may be some types that are not on Wildwinds.
Here is what I have of this type.. there are many variations. Also some excellent information from Victor Clark: Struck A.D. 319 19mm IMP CONSTAN-TINVS AVG -- high crested helmet, cuir., spear across r. shoulder, shield on left arm VICT• LAETAE PRINC PERP -- two Victories stg., facing one another, together holding shield inscribed VOT PR on altar inscribed with I In ex. •ASIS• RIC VII Siscia 82 r5 Victor Clark has an excellent article on this type on his site here: http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/sis/ He notes the translation of the reverse legend as: VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP = "Joyous (well-earned) victory to the eternal Prince" and VOT PR engraved on the shield is VOTA POPVLI ROMANI "vows of the Roman people" I also found this very interesting - quoting Victor Clark: "RIC VII describes the reverse of these coins as two victories holding a shield. It is actually a wreath though. This reverse is just like the type issued a few years later by Magnentius, which RIC VIII correctly describes as two victories holding a wreath. My descriptions call it a shield, following RIC VII, but it is a wreath, which is evidenced by the wreath ties easily visible on the top of most examples. If you look closely on a clear example, you will see that only one victory is holding the wreath. The other victory is actually inscribing the wreath. You can see the stylus in the hand of victory on some examples. The reverse description should be something like this: two Victories standing, facing one another, one inscribing wreath with VOT PR, while the other Victory holds the wreath above an altar." I hope this helps...
Wildwinds will often show more that one example of a particular coin, and so will add a letter after the RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) number. Some volumes of RIC also use letters in their numbering, but Volume VII, which describes this coin, does not. So 49, D is a Wildwinds number based on RIC, but not a RIC number. RIC lists three similar varieties of this coin, each with a different number. RIC 49 and RIC 50 both have an obverse inscription that begins with IMP. (RIC 50 also has Constantine holding a shield on the obverse; RIC 49 does not have this shield.) Also, neither 49 nor 50 have the "I" in the center of the column on the reverse. Your coin has this I, the shield in the obverse portrait, and its obverse inscription is CONSTANT-INVS AVG. It is RIC 51. Hope this helps.
@ancient coin hunter , @Clavdivs , @gsimonel , I just wanted to tell you all thank you so much for the help. This forum is awesome because of the people that take their time to contribute and help everyone here. A very BIG THANK YOU to everyone!
@bcuda The reason for the D after the RIC number is to take note of the officina letter in the exergue. In this case, a delta, so WW will note a D. A full attribution would be something like, “ RIC VII Siscia 51, D.”
