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Message:: [QUOTE="Mikey Zee, post: 2263140, member: 72818"]Despite what you may have expected<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />....the coin that I will post is an AS of Claudius I with an unfamiliar 'diety' 'Constantia'. I was drawn to this bronze because of that and by the surprisingly inexpensive price it seemed to be going for at auction. Naturally, I couldn't find any reference to this deity in my usual 'handbook' but googled and discovered that it means 'constancy', 'consistency' and 'firmness'. It also appears that this was begun by Claudius himself in an attempt to establish a new Imperial virtue---setting aside the arbitrary rule of the murdered Gaius Caligula and was initiated from the very first coins minted under Claudius. It also raises the obvious sounding connection to the Constantine dynasty and of all those towns and cities similarly named. While I have yet to precisely attribute this coin, it appears to be a RIC 95 and of about 9.7 grams and 27 mm, dated to 41-54 AD at Rome.[ATTACH=full]449452[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]449453[/ATTACH] The legend should read TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP; CONSTANTIAE AVGVSTI, wth S C A bareheaded bust of Claudius with a reverse of 'Constantia' in military dress standing left holding a long spear in the left hand.[/QUOTE]