Constantine I - Folles series of Constantinople

Finally (at least as my collection goes) the CONSTANTINIANA DAFNE follis:

There is so much information on Victor Clark's website that it is hardly necessary to discuss the type again. I think this is the most enigmatic of the series.

Daphne means laurel and it can stand in for victory. Hence, the most obvious message is "Constantine's victory". However, I think there is a lot more going on. Victoria is turning away from the symbols of war and defeat in front of her. Perhaps this is again a promise of peace.
The unusual choice of Daphne may hint at Daphne's transformation linking it to Constantine's conversion to Christianity. In a sense, this coin may have a Christian message.
And finally, it is interesting to note what has been left out of this coin and indeed the whole series. There are no references to Mars the victorious the pacifier or the revenger. There is not even a Sol invincible, or Sol the companion. The whole set is meant to appeal to Christians. It is a Christian coin series, which is most obviously clear of course from the rare SPES PVBLICA, which I don't have and which conveys the message that the hope of the population will rest on Christianity.

 

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Considering that these pieces were made to look silvery with the coating, I think that the silvering is a note of authenticity and a plus. I agree, the design and devices are perhaps best put out there to be valued when the coin is brown or red coppery with some thin patina or hand grease or when the earthen and sandy fill is just enough to make the details pop.

Regarding the propaganda discussion, Constantine seems to have tried to emulate Augustus as a unifying figure and restorer of the "Republic" -- which is probably why he is depicted on the GLORIA EXERCITVS in 3 to 400 year old attire in this series for instance.

 

I agree that there must be an implicit message of some sort in the choice of dafne over victoria. However, I think it is a mistake to to take a black and white approach to pagan vs Christian coin types. The best efforts of Eusebius notwithstanding, most scholars today hold a more nuanced view of Constantine's "conversion", including a degree of Christian-pagan syncretism.
[Edited]

 

@Victor_Clark, your page is excellent and I agree that the main reference of "DAFNE" must be to victory - also somehow to laurel. One small detail I take issue with, though, is in the following bit:

Eusebius wrote in his "Oration of Constantine to the Assembly of the Saints" in chapter eighteen:

“having been devoted by the folly of her parents to this service, a service productive of nothing good or noble, but only of indecent fury, such as we find recorded in the case of Daphne. On one occasion, however, having rushed into the sanctuary of her vain superstition, she became really filled with inspiration from above, and declared in prophetic verses the future purposes of God…”

This passage relates how the oracle realized the error of her old pagan beliefs. Maybe the Dafne coins also alluded to this change in spirituality.​

Looking at the quote from the Oration in context, the woman referred to as having become filled with inspiration is the Erythraean sibyl rather than Daphne. Daphne is here just as an example of how these oracles "produce nothing good or noble." So I don't think this provides support for the idea that the coin represents a change in spirituality.

(For a summary of what's been said about the Daphne passage in the Oration, see section 6.3 of this dissertation: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/2930422/DX186767.pdf. And thanks for sending me on a delightful trip through some of this literature.)