So I was reading around about the reverse legend MARTI PATRI CONSERVATOR, which appears on early folles of Constantine, ca. 307. In the old DICTIONARY OF ROMAN COINS I read this: I was particularly curious about the possibility that “the features and helmet of Constantine himself are plainly to be recognized.” If the Beger here is Lorenz Beger (d. 1705), that’s a pretty old authority. The reverse figure on this coin seems to be the same figure as on other Mars coinage, such as the Marti Propvgnatori coins. Does anyone subscribe to the view that this reverse figure is Constantine, or does the conventional wisdom prevail that the figure indeed is Mars? This lovely example of the coin in question is one that @gsimonel had posted to another thread on this board.
Mars. To see anything else given the MARTI PATRI CONSERVATORI inscription strikes me as the product of an overactive imagination.
An interesting idea. I view the figure on these coins as Mars much in the same way as other "conservatori" coins for Jupiter and such. It's not out of the realm of possibility for Constantine to be representing himself as Mars, however Constantine also minted coins with a bust of Mars on the reverse at the mint of Trier (with a similar helmet I think). I am more inclined to believe it is in fact Mars on the reverse.
I'd say it's Mars all day, but I am developing a fondness for eccentric old numismatists who make wild claims without backing them up. Like Stukeley and his Oriuna fantasy. It reminds me of the 'Orientalists' who translated the Thousand Nights and One Night. Many mysterious manuscripts that were magically found and then disappeared without a trace when the 'translating' was done.
You have to wonder how many of these coins he would have seen in person. There may well be some examples where you could make this extrapolation but you would have to want to see it. I have or have owned about 100 Mars coins of Constantine and could not draw this conclusion from any of them.
