Britain restored to the Roman Empire by Constantius (Caesar of the west) In 296 Constantius launched a powerful naval invasion force against Secessionist Britain in two divisions: one led by himself, which sailed from Boulogne, and the other led by his Praetorian Prefect, Asclepiodotus, which sailed from the mouth of the river Seine. The mission of Constantius was to remove Allectus, the usurper Augustus, from power and restore Britain to the Empire. This mission was accomplished and although Constantius was in overall command of the operation, some historical sources assert it was the force under Asclepiodotus that did most of the fighting on land and in fact it was they who defeated and killed Allectus during the decisive battle. Constantius subsequently entered the city of London to proclaim his conquest as restorer of the eternal light of the Roman Empire: Redditor Lucis Aeternae. Above is a photograph of the reverse of a bronze copy of the famous ten aurei multiple (RIC VOLUME VI, TREVERI, No. 34), the original of which presently resides in the museum at Arras, commemorating the restoration of Britain to the Roman Empire by Constantius in 296. It depicts the personification of Londinium (LON) kneeling and supplicating to Constantius (on horseback) outside of the City Fortification while a galley with Roman soldiers waits on the river Thames. The inscription REDDITOR LVCIS AETERNAE proclaims Constantius as the restorer of the eternal light (of Rome). The Treveri (Trier) mint mark (PTR) is in the exergue. Bastien records the original coin as No. 218 in his book on the Arras Hoard and mentions that galvano copies were made and sold by the Paris coin dealer Bourgey. At a weight of 23.0 grams I think the copy depicted here was cast in bronze from one of those galvano copies. There appears to be numerous other copies in circulation in a variety of metals - brass/bronze, silver, gold, gilded copper, etc. Following are obverse and reverse depictions with attribution information: FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOBIL CAES ............. REDDITOR LVCIS AETERNAE LON (right) PTR (exergue) These copies show up occasionally at coin shows or in online auctions and used to be (I don't know about these days) fairly inexpensive. My memory is not too good these days but I believe I purchased this copy at a local coin shop about thirty years ago for somewhere around $30.
Sometimes, copies are all you can get. And that is always perfectly fine. I like yours, plus it tells a really cool story. Here's mine. I'm not shelling out $3000 for a genuine one.
From a 2005 CNG auction: https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=70679 Note: For educational purposes -- images in link by CNG
@Andres2: Very nice reference copy. I have never owned a "Port Ost" on which I could see all of the depictions clearly.
