I don’t have many of Constans coins but the ones I do were from uncleaned lots and they aren’t the greatest. However, I bought this Constans because of his superb portrait that distances itself from my others. A real beauty. I have his other family members that I’ll show later on. Constans, 9 September 337 - 19 January 350 A.D. Billon reduced centenionalis, RIC VII Trier 552, LRBC I 75, SRCV V 1834, Cohen VII 77 2.277g, 16.8mm, 0o, 1st officina, Treveri mint obverse FL IVL CONSTANS NOB CAES, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; reverse GLORIA EXERCITVS, two soldiers standing facing, flanking two standards and wreath in center, heads confronted, each holds a spear in outer hand and rests inner hand on grounded shield, TRP in exergue
That's a very nice Constans, obverse and reverse, much better than mine CONSTANS AE4 OBVERSE: IMP CONS-TANS AVG, laureate and rosette-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right REVERSE: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers holding spears and shields with one standard between them decorated with crescent. Mintmark PCONST Struck at Arles 331-334 AD 1.0g, 15mm RIC VIII 13
I agree, that is a fantastic portrait style!! I like the wreath on the reverse too. Here are 3 of my Constans, none of mine come close to your portrait.
The range of portraiture for Constans at this period is quite wide. I bought this Trier purely for the portrait though I think that your Trier portrait has more artistic merit. The Siscia portrait often look chubby and more childlike. Alexandria can appear much, much older Lugdunum can look cartoonish
I have very limited exposure with Constans. Here are my two examples that I can toss on the fire: RI Constans 337-350 Æ Follis 22mm 3.9g Heraclea AD348-351 holding globe - FEL TEMP REPARATIO soldier spear leads figure from hut RI Constans 337-350 AE3 19mm Thesalonika mint Reparatio stdg CHI RHO banner
Who has 2 thumbs and got his Constans from an uncleaned lot? This guy! 337-350 Follis, Ae Siscia mint Av: D N CONSTAN-S P F AVG, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Constans right. Rv: VICTOR-IA AVGG, * B SIS * in exergue, Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm.
@Ryro Actually... that one’s Valens! Also the reverse legend is SECVRITAS-REIPVBLICAE. Nice coin though!
thanks for the heads up. I recently have been trying to go through and photo my collection and have (obviously) not a good enough process for keeping track.
Will the real Constans please stand up? "Oh, hey. Here I am." Constans Mint: Hellespont, Cyzicus Obverse: CONSTA-NS P F AVG.diademed head of Constans to the right Reverse: VOT/XX/MVLT/XXX//SMK
I have some other family members which I'll post on a separate thread. They're on layaway as well. I finally got over cleaning uncleaned lots and will just buy a very nice example, for now. Everyone's coins are awesome. What's sad is, the amount I spent on this one coin is probably less than what I spent on Uncleaned lots. Got to learn one way or the hard way.
