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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3203718, member: 83956&quot;]There have been so many threads on Constantine and Christian symbols (like <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/catching-the-roman-fever.323736/#post-3194669" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/catching-the-roman-fever.323736/#post-3194669">this</a> recent one) that I’m somewhat reticent to begin another. But I’d like to focus on a narrow topic, which might yield a short thread indeed: Constantine “Lifetime” issues featuring a Chi-Rho.</p><p><br /></p><p>We talk about “lifetime” Julius Caesar portrait denarii, or “lifetime” Alexander the Great tets, with the understanding that a lifetime issue has a higher degree of collectability. I think the same may be said, to a slightly lesser degree, about coins struck for Constantine featuring a Chi-Rho Christian symbol.</p><p><br /></p><p>We know that the Chi-Rho features prominently on coins of Magnentius and Decentius, and on various standards (the labarum) on coins of Constantine’s sons. But as I understand it, the chi-rho on an issue of Constantine the Great is quite scarce, if not rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>On Saturday, I received an email notice that this coin appeared in [USER=10613]@Victor_Clark[/USER]&#039;s&nbsp; stock:</p><p><br /></p><p>Constantine I; 336 A.D.; AE nummus</p><p>16 mm. 1.8 g. 180°</p><p>CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG; rosette-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.</p><p>GLORIA EXERCITVS; Two soldiers helmeted, stg. facing one another, reversed spear in outer hands, inner hands on shields resting on the ground; between them one standard inscribed with a Chi-Rho.</p><p>PCONST; Arles. RIC VII Arles 394.</p><p>Top photo is mine; bottom photo is Victor&#039;s.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]829724[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]829725[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I was driving and actually ordered the coin on my cell phone because I hadn’t seen one for sale since I started paying attention. (Yes, I know, not very safe. It won’t happen again. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie104" alt=":yawn:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />).</p><p><br /></p><p>It looks like a garden-variety GLORIA EXERCITUS, a reverse type that is in the running for the “roach” of LRBs. But the fact that it’s a Constantine I with a Chi-Rho standard makes it one of the few Constantine I coins issued during his lifetime that bears the Chi-Rho. (I guess the term &quot;lifetime&quot; here is unnecessary since any coin struck for Constantine featuring the Chi-Rho was struck during his lifetime; there are no posthumous issues for him featuring a Chi-Rho, unlike, say, posthumous issues of Alexander the Great. I suppose &quot;lifetime&quot; simply stresses this point.)</p><p><br /></p><p>(One other aside here: I ordered the coin at 1 pm Saturday. I came home MONDAY (!) to find the coin in my mailbox. Simple $5 basic shipping. The speed must be due to Victor’s attention to his business and the fact that we live only 140 miles apart in Tennessee.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Post/discuss lifetime Constantine Chi-Rhos, or anything you feel is relevant.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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