I’ve got a couple dozen new coins this year but just haven’t got around to posting them. I thought I would change that for these two that arrived this week! The first coin here is a nice chunky Kingdom of Numidia Juba I unit 60-46 BC. Juba is a really interesting guy as the last ruler of Numidia so I’m excited after hunting for a while to find a nice coin of his to add to my collection. The other coin here is also interesting but very different. This is a Constantinople City Dedication half-centenionalis struck in Constantinople in 330 AD. I rarely purchase 4th century Roman bronzes but for a commemorative struck in Constantinople the year of the renaming of the city (at a time when great transformations were occurring as Constantine built his new capital) I knew I could make a exception. I know there are much more common and inexpensive commemoratives in this series but the deep connections of this one to this moment in history and scarcity gave it a different level of appeal. Anyway, just a little taste of my collecting journey, feel free to post any relevant coins below!!
NORTH AFRICA, KINGS of NUMIDIA. Massinissa or Micipsa. (203-148 BC) or (148-118 BC). Æ. (21mm, 11.00g). Obverse: Laureate and bearded head left. Reverse: Horse rearing left; Punic MN below.
I agree and bought mine years ago when I was beginning the phase trying to be more interested in Late Roman rather than just my specialty Severans (it took me about a thousand coins to confirm that I was not interested enough in LR to put in the work). Help me understand how this coin is a better link to the founding than, for example, a pair of the ubiquitous Urbs Roma and Constantinopolis coins.
Well, as I understand it, only this and the the equally scarce Milvian bridge type we’re both struck in Constantinople and struck only in 330 AD, the year of the founding. In my mind that gives them a deeper connection.
There were other types struck in Constantinople like this coin with Constantinopolis on obverse and Pax on reverse Commemorative Series A.D. 330 15mm 1.6gm CONSTAN-TINOPLIS; Diademed and draped bust of Constantinopolis right. REV: Pax standing left, holding branch and transverse scepter; P R across fields. RIC VIII Rome 106 This type was originally included in RIC VIII and dated to A.D. 348; but it seems most likely that these coins were struck in Constantinopolis in A.D. 330 for the dedication of the city. I have also explained several times in other posts why the bridge type seems unlikely to have anything to do with the Milvian Bridge. Here is a bit from my commemorative page-- The POP ROMANVS type was issued circa A.D. 330 and this half- “centenionales” was likely a donative issued to commemorate the founding of Constantinople. There are two types, the star reverse and bridge reverse. Some think that the two reverses might represent the cities of Rome and Constantinople, the star for Constantinople and the bridge for Rome. There has been speculation that the bridge is an allusion to Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge but it seems unlikely given how many years had passed, it is probably just a bridge over a river, and possibly a bridge over the Danube. It seems likely that this bridge issue has nothing to do with Rome, as Constantine built a bridge over the Danube circa A.D. 328 -- "Constantine the pious crossed the Danube very many times, and made a bridge for it in stone." Chronicon Paschale http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/comm/