Late Roman AE is among the least expensive of all Roman coins and the number of types is limited so you can hope to fill out most of a set. Here is a checklist of all AE types for Gratian and examples of most: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/GratianSet.html His most distinctive type is: Emperor standing right, head left, holding labarum and left resting on shield Unusual obverse legend: DN GRATIANVS AVG G AVG 367-375 This type, neither common nor rare, was struck only for Gratian and only at Arelate. 19 mm. A bit larger than most AE3s of the time, which are usually 18 mm. Obverse legend DN GRATIANVS AVGG AVG" with "AVG G AVG" is interpreted, according to some 19th century scholars (and in Cohen), as "Augusti Gener Augustus" i.e. "emperor, son-in-law of an emperor," because Gratian married Constantia, the posthumous daughter of the emperor Constantius II, the "gener" being Gratian. RIC has it "avgustorum avgustvs" which might be translated "Augustus in a line of Augusti". GLORIA NOVI SAECVLI TCON Glory of the new age. Tertia (third officina) CONstantina, the name of Arles at the time. "Arelate is alone in giving him the reverse legend [on AE]... which presented him to the Gauls as the boy of the Messianic prophecy who was to bring back the Golden Age of peace and plenty." Pearce, NC 1948, p. 72.
Nice @Valentinian and good explanation. I've not been collecting much during the era lately, but here is my Gratian
That's a nice Gratian Valentinian, and interesting catalogue of Gratian set, I have one of his QVARTA in exergue, do you know what that means and is it as common as the other types, appreciate any comments.
It means it is the fourth workshop from the Rome mint P = Prima (1) S = Secunda (2) T = Tertia (3) Q = Quarta (4)
For more about officina numbers spelled out, look at my page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/RomeOfficina/Officina.html
These kinds of posts are very helpful to me in focusing some approaches to collecting. And wow. Lots of work in those pages!
The GLORIA NOVI SAECVLI type is not the only one with the obverse legend ending in AVG G AVG. The same obverse legend was used with the more mundane types GLORIA ROMANORVM and SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE at Lyon and according to RIC IX these coins should be very common (C2). But they are not. I have actually seen very few such coins -- all of them with GLORIA reverse, one on Mr. Esty's Late Roman Bronzes site one sold by Roma in February 2019 here and another that comes from what I suspect is an old French collection: This type has a break in the legend, which might date it to 375 rather than 374, if we are to guide our considereations by the Augustus Gener Augusti interpretation of the legend.
Thanks for your web-page @Valentinian ! Mine are not too attractive... GRATIAN: RI Gratian 367-383 CE AE 17mm Reduced Folles Leading captive XP banner labarum RI Gratian 367-383 CE AE 17mm Reduced Folles Concordia RI Gratian 367-383 CE AE 17mm Reduced Folles Emp Stdg w Shield and XP banner labarum
