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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4283057, member: 19463&quot;]Technically, I would think it better not to think of coins of the 4th century as having been issued by one ruler but as &#039;in the name of&#039; a ruler. The city commomoratives were issued as a part of a series naming the Augusti, Caesares, Augustae and even one &#039;king&#039; from the various mints.&nbsp; When Constantine was alive he controlled all of these mints but before the end of Licinius and after the death of Constantine I, the various mints fell into regions controlled by one person or another and those regions changed now and then.&nbsp; It is easier to think of a coin of, for example, Constantine I as one with his name and portrait on it rather than one issued in his name by a mint controlled by Licinius or, later, a posthumous issue by one son or another.&nbsp; This approach makes the Commemoratives coins of the state issued by the mints in honor of the two cities.&nbsp; Specialists will want to know who was in control of which mints but it will not always be possible to separate a specific coin into an exact date before or after a death or change in the power boundaries.&nbsp; For example: </p><p><br /></p><p>I agree with the general point made by Roman Collector but the very first coins of the light standard were made before the death of Constantine.&nbsp; Separating the coins made a day/week before his death from those made a day/week after is, in the case of the Commemoratives, not possible.&nbsp; The safe out would be to call the coins Constantinian period Commemoratives and leave the separations to experts with access to hoard evidence.&nbsp; If a hoard of a thousand coins is found containing lighter standard Commemoratives but no coins of the sons as Augusti (the title they did not get before their father died), it would be evidence that those coins were buried before his death but the mints made no changes to the coin series when Constantine died other than to stop making his coins and to start coins for the three Caesar-sons with their new Augustus legends.&nbsp; Separating the coins of Constantine I from the first issues of Constantine II as Augustus is a bit tricky for those without access to RIC but that is another thread for another day.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I love this idea.&nbsp; I prefer we concentrate on the coins that did service and were important in the economy until we advance to a place where we can specialize and study the rarities with some background.&nbsp; I have never understood beginners who start their 12 Caesars collection with Otho and Vitellius rather than Nero and Vespasian.&nbsp; It is just a different way of approaching the hobby.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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