Recent pickup. I like the coin because the sandy contrast brings out the details. Post anything relevant, thanks!
I'm not usually a fan of the "sand patina" - but I certainly love that reverse - its awesome! You should be very happy to own that coin. Here is a really inexpensive Constantius II that I think has a very nice reverse.. AE Centenionalis AD 337-361. Constantius II bust, right. REV: soldier taking young barbarian
Mathew, Your Siscia bronze is an excellent pickup with a great action scene on the reverse . I have several coins struck at the Siscia mint, my favorite is pictured below. It is an early example of Diocletian's billon nummus from his currency reform. The link below has an excellent article on the Siscia mint, authored by Aeternitas Numismatics, that you may enjoy reading . Knowing the Roman imperial mints: V- Siscia. (aeternitas-numismatics.com)
Nice addition, here two sandy Fallen Horsemen examples of my collection: Emperor Constantius II. - FEL TEMP REPARATIO - Heraclea mint Emperor Constantius II. - FEL TEMP REPARATIO - Constantia/Arles mint
Nice "Fallen Horseman" you got there, @Matthew Kruse - I too like that desert patina. I notice your horseman has an interesting hairdo - a topknot perhaps? Recently, I obtained a huge hoard of ancients from generous CTer @tenbobbit - as far as can tell from researching it, this features a "punky" or "straight up" hair style (to me it looks more like a truncated beehive 'do?). I was also a bit confused about attribution; with OCRE (which presumably follows RIC) giving two possibilities and Wildwinds noting that these two descriptions are identical. Constantius II Æ 16 (351-353 / 355-361 A.D.) Nicomedia Mint D N CONSTAN-TIVS P F AVG pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / FEL TEMP RE-PARATIO, soldier standing left spearing a fallen horseman with hair "straight up" reaching backwards, SMNB in exergue. (2.07 grams / 16 mm) @tenbobbit Oct. 2021 Attribution: These are identical in OCRE, but with different dates: RIC VIII 96: 351-355 A.D. RIC VIII 104: 355-361 A.D. Wildwinds acknowledges this split attribution. Var.: horseman has no cap, but "straight up"/"punky" hair (see Wildwinds); none in OCRE wear a cap! Here is the full Wildwinds note: "RIC VIII Nicomedia 96/104 Note: According to RIC, reference numbers 96 and 104 are identical, both described as "wearing cap", meant to denote the pointed Phrygian helmet. There are two versions known so far for Nicomedia 96/104: One has the horseman wearing a Phrygian helmet, the other is like this one, with punky hair straight up. Submitted by Dane, August 2009" https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantius_II/_nicomedia_RIC_viii_104.txt
Mine featuring the Michelin man. Rubber tires and spears don't look like they work well together. Constantius II (337 - 361 A.D.) Æ3 O: D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: FEL TEMP REPARATIO (happy times restored), soldier rushing left spearing fallen horseman, soldier in military garb with helmet and shield on left arm, soldiers right foot on shield on the ground, horseman laying across his stumbled mount, bare-headed, without beard, raising left hand in helpless defense. Nocomedia Mint 2.01g 16.9mm RIC Nocomedia 96 variant
I see it as Alexandria ALE gamma. I do not have one exactly like it but mine is from a bit earlier weight standard with the Gamma in the reverse field. It is 22mm and weighs 5.89g. Is yours 16-19mm and about 2.5g (RIC80 page 544)? Note these later ones split the reverse legend P-R while mine used E-P as common in the early phase. By chance, I do have RIC81, the smaller one in the name of Constantius Gallus complete with sand patina and the later legend split that weighs 2.56g. It does have a different officina letter (A) but these exist for both rulers with all four workshop designations. Yours is a decent example of the later period. I might suggest you be on the lookout for an early one from the larger series just to demonstrate the point that inflation took quite a toll on the coins during the decade of the 350's. This is demonstrated in the image below from my webpage on the subject. Your coin would fall between the bottom two in the shrinking process. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fh.html
Sorry for any confusion, I just got home and measured it, and it is around 18mm. I wasn't aware of the different types, I mainly just bought it as I thought the fallen horseman reverse was pretty cool, haha. Thank you everyone for the info and sharing yours!
