Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 8313728, member: 19463&quot;]I have none of the rare FTR coins of Magnentius but do have&nbsp; the Tau Rho from Amiens for Magnentius [ATTACH=full]1471779[/ATTACH] and Chi Rho from Arles Decentius.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1471780[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Still, I consider most interesting the matter that the ruler (Magnentius) making greatest use of the symbol was a pagan.&nbsp; He was attempting to gain favor with Western &#039;Catholic&#039; Christians who were quite unhappy with Constantius II who was an Arian Heretic.&nbsp; Arius held that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Father but was did not exist before his birth while the Roman church held that he was co-eternal and had always been and was equal to the Father.&nbsp; This was expressed in Greek as ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί (<i>Same</i> essence as the Father) while the Arians believed Christ was ὁμο<b>I</b>ούσιον τῷ Πατρί (<i>Similar</i> essence as the Father).&nbsp; The words differed by one letter, an iota, and gave us the phrase &quot;doesn&#039;t make an iota of difference&quot;.&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2012/09/not-one-iota-of-difference.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2012/09/not-one-iota-of-difference.html" rel="nofollow">http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2012/09/not-one-iota-of-difference.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Magnentius was banking on the then current tendency for Christians to prefer a non-Christian to a Christian of the wrong &#039;flavor&#039;.&nbsp; This general attitude has continued through history with conflict, for example, between Catholics and Protestants or Catholics and Orthodox.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1471778[/ATTACH] </p><p>The large Chi Rho type is flanked by the all important Alpha and Omega (first and last letters of the alphabet) emphasizing the belief that Christ was there from the beginning and would be there until the end.</p><p><br /></p><p>This led to the &#039;problem&#039; coins showing that fine points of theology were not a strong point at the Trier mint when the type was continued for a short time after the fall of Magnentius on coins bearing the portrait of Constantius II.&nbsp; I can only assume that someone got a &#039;cut it out!!!&#039; order from higher authorities resulting in these coins being scarce.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1471782[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Of the coins that I do NOT have but would really like to own is the turbo-rare FEL TEMP REPARATIO Falling Horseman in the name of Magnentius.&nbsp; This morning, I even failed to find a photo of one.</p><p><br /></p><p>As always here when this comes up I must show my Falling Horseman that does not count because it is obviously barbarous and not the product of any &#039;recognized&#039; mint.&nbsp; It is less than 100% clear whether it was intended to be Magnentius or Decentius (counting the bumps makes the shorter name seem better).&nbsp; This coin points out the situation that there is one thing more rare than &#039;unique&#039; and that is &#039;does not exist&#039; (zero being less than one).&nbsp; This coin for Decentius does not exist in an official version and anything is possible when we look at the unofficial. If forced to read the thing I would get DN MACENTIUS AVG.&nbsp; One has to wonder if the person who made it even had a &#039;First&#039; language.&nbsp; It certainly was not Latin. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1471783[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in