Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Heliodromus, post: 7766475, member: 120820"]But Constantine wasn't consul in 321 AD. The BEATA consular busts are an oddity, perhaps due to the issuing mints all being under control of Crispus, but there is no precedent (that I'm aware of) of Constantine's mints using consular busts outside of consular years. The alignment between the dates of the coins and datable historic events is what it is! Maybe it would be more satisfying if these emperors would issue new vota suscepta types exactly when prior vows expired, but that just doesn't seem to be how they always did it. It seems Constantine's mints didn't bother waiting until until the caesars' (belatedly issued) 5-years vows were fulfilled before going ahead with 10-year ones (and of course Crispus skipped the 5-year vows altogether at his mints). Constantine's quindecennalial year would have been 320-321 AD (306 + 14), so it seems Rome's final XV types (VOT X ET XV, VOT XV) may have extended into that year (certainly having started before with VOT XV FEL XX), then been pretty rapidly replaced with the standardized (mintmark outside of wreath) VOT V/VOT XX types at all of Constantine's mints. Constantine himself doesn't appear to have been in Italy/Rome during his quindecennalial year, so these special VOT XV types may have been more anticipatory rather than culminating in any major local celebration.[/QUOTE]