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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Heliodromus, post: 7813559, member: 120820&quot;]There&#039;s a few reasons why the SPES type is rare:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) During the laureate issue it shared an officina (A) with the GLORIA ROMANORVM type, so these two types (GLORIA + SPES) were probably each produced in about 1/2 the quantity of the other two types (which were NOT sharing officinas).</p><p><br /></p><p>2) The SPES type barely exists in the diademed bust issue that followed the laureate one. Evidentially production of this type, for reasons we can only speculate, was quickly cut short in this issue.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) It&#039;s been theorized that at the same time the diademed SPES was discontinued, there was an attempt to &quot;withdraw&quot; the type by removing all existing specimens from circulation. Even if only the money changers in Constantinople were doing this, it could have been quite successful.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can read more on the SPES type in Lars Ramskold&#039;s &quot;A treatise on the SPES PVBLIC coins&quot; here:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://independent.academia.edu/LarsRamskold" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://independent.academia.edu/LarsRamskold" rel="nofollow">https://independent.academia.edu/LarsRamskold</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I think it&#039;s true that modern collectors/scholars put more importance on this type than Constantine may have done himself. As a SPES type it is forward looking, yet as part of the victory group it might be supposed to allude to Constantine&#039;s victory over Licinius. Given the dynastic-design military standard, the overall message seems to be celebrating victory over evil, and promising to continue to do so.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course it&#039;s interesting to us collectors to see the Chi-Rho used in an official context like this, but I don&#039;t think it changes meaning of the type. Constantine was fighting under the assumed protection of the Christian god, so he depicts a Christian (and dynastic) military standard.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is interesting to speculate as to why the SPES type was abruptly cut short in the diademed issue, and apparently withdrawn. There are many reason&#039;s that might be plausible:</p><p><br /></p><p>- Regret at killing Crispus whose naval victory was celebrated in this same group, helping to put Constantine where he was. The dynastic three vs four dots (presumably heads of Constantine + sons) on the banner might seem quite poignant if he did indeed regret it (was Fausta killed because he discovered a lie?).</p><p><br /></p><p>- Pushback from the Army, still likely mostly of mithraic persuasion at this time, over the Christian standard. It&#039;s notable that after 300 AD all Constantine issues, other than the Rome/Constantinopolis commemoratives is GLORIA EXERCITVS. Appealing to the army was always of utmost importance. Also notable in this context is the large officina expansion of the GLORIA ROMANORVM type (which had shared an officina with SPES). A doubling down on traditional values, perhaps.</p><p><br /></p><p>- Pushback from the local/eastern population over the &quot;victory over evil/snake&quot; motif, implying that Licinius was evil. Celebrating victory over one&#039;s own countrymen in a civil war was obviously a bit of a touchy issue. GLORIA EXERCITVS is one thing, but unless the vanquished foe was majority unpopular then perhaps better to leave it at that. In early revisions Eusebius paints Licinius in a positive light, so it&#039;s not at all obvious the public - perhaps content with the status quo - would have been happy at having their shared values with Licinius depicted as evil, or happy with the stripping of temple treasures that happened under the new guy!</p><p><br /></p><p>No doubt there are other theories too. Who knows - maybe someday a parchment discovery will be made that will tell us what happened![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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