After nearly missing my towns local coin show, and a life saving phone call from Collect89, I promptly jumped in the car and made it to the show. This show is very small with only a handful of dealers and is often very, very thin on ancients. There is one or two sellers who have a couple laying around. So having $40 bucks in my pocket, I didn't expect to find anything interesting and affordable. After spotting a few I would say decent coins (Collect89's throwbacks) and a few overpriced 3rd century denarii, I notice a large black and green blotchy coin with no active corrosion and nice details. Marked $35, Ancientnoob always feels like he needs to make a deal, so $25 dollars got me the coin. The coin reads IMP C CONSTANTIVS PF AVG with the Laureate head of the emperor on the obverse and the reverse reads GENIO POP ROM and PLC in the exergue, with a nice figure of Genius standing holding a cornucopia and Paterna before a lighted altar. I don't recall seeing to many of these large Constantine coins, so I felt it needed to come home with me. After doing some quick research (googling), the coin was minted in Lugdunum in 307-308 AD, it is described in a Freeman & Sear mail bid auction in '07 as a Billon Follis of Constantine the Great. RIC 259 marked as a rare. Rare or not the coin is phat, and I am happy it came home with Ancientnoob. Constantine the Great 307-337 AD Billon Follis Constantine as Ceasar (s.307-308 AD) AE 27.4 mm x 6.98 g Obverse: IMP CONSTANTIVS PF AVG - Laureate and Cuirassed bust of Constantine Reverse: GENIO POP ROM- Genius Standing holding cornucopia and and Patera at lighted altar. ref: RIC 529
I think you did well for $25. Not sure about the rarity. I dont focus on this area of rome much. Also I find Genius coins boring but Doug knows more about them.
The R rating requires this to be RIC 259 described as Genius 'towered' as opposed to the S rated RIC 255 with Genius having a modius on head. Which we have here is less than clear to me but I agree the coin is good either way.
Master Noob, Phat is the word of the day, love the color,the detail's great. Its a lot a fun to go to a show and dig around and find coin's, hold them and feel them before you buy. well done my young friend...
255 http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=614942 259 http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=70554 Yours is 255.
Ah 255 - a buddy of mine (somewhere's else ) came up with 255 as well, so thats got to be it! Good either way and works for me, S or R doesn't really matter, having a phat Constantine is what works for me. Jeeze, these coins seem to sell for a lot of money according to AC Search. Thanks guys, I am glad you like it, and I feel even better that I did well.
Cool type. Many get bored with the genius reverses since they were probably the most common reverses of the period. As a type, though, i always thought they were great. I have been spoiled this summer with Moneta being at some local shows. I hear you, though, most of the time ancients are slim pickings.
ACSearch records mostly full service, high end dealers who only sell really nice examples of such things as Late Roman bronzes. Yours is a nice coin to people like me but would not be cataloged as a separate lot by 90% of the 'name' dealers. I suspect CNG or the like would be happy to sell 10% of my collection but would either refuse the rest or put them in a big lot at the back of the book sold 'as is'. Your coin strikes me as worth about what you paid due to the uneven patina and, especially, the bare brass at reverse bottom. Given perfect surfaces (don't try to clean it!!!), it would be a super coin. As is, it is only something guys like us will love. Compare the surfaces on the AC Search examples. I'd say they are worth 2 x to 3x your coin but not 8x. Obviously there are people out there who will pay 8x just like there are US collectors that pay 8x for a MS66 over a MS65.
I failed in my photography.... There is no bare metal on my coin,but rather a 'sandy' colored part of the patina. Back to the lab again....
