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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Heliodromus, post: 7982070, member: 120820&quot;]I was very pleased to receive this coin today, as it&#039;s a type I&#039;ve been wanting for a very long time. It&#039;s an interesting transitional type issued from Licinius&#039; Nicomedia mint c.317 AD immediately after Crispus, Constantine II and Licinius II had been appointed as caesars.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1385146[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Obv: FL VA CRISPVS NOV CS</p><p>Rev: IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG</p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse legend is unlisted - it&#039;s a variation/correction of RIC VII Nicomedia 25 (FL VN CRISPVS NOCAS).</p><p><br /></p><p>The appointing and joint recognition of the caesars appears to have been part of the settlement after Constantine and Licinius&#039;s first civil war which had ended with the Battle of Campus Ardiensis in Thracia. As part of the settlement, Licinius also ceded his territories of Pannonia and Moesia to Constantine, making Thracia now a border province.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1385145[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>At the same time as this settlement was being made, Licinius** reformed his coinage replacing the old nummus with a new more silver rich denomination. The newly appointed caesars generally make their first appearance on Licinius&#039; coinage on this new denomination (e.g. my coin above), except at his southernmost mint of Alexandria where the caesars just made it onto the final pre-reform nummus issue, which also included emperor Valens who had been appointed during the war.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s Licinius II on this final Alexandrian nummus issue (RIC 21).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1385147[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps due to it now being a border province, Licinius new coinage is different at Heraclea (Thracia) vs his other mints south of the Bosphorus. At Heraclea Licinius issues a new campgate type, initially just PROVIDENTIAE AVGG for himself, then including Constantine and adding PROVIDENTIAE CAESS for the caesars. At Cyzicus, Antioch and Alexandria Licinius issues his go-to Jupiter reverse with IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG for himself and Constantine, and IOVI CONSERVATORI CAESS for the caesars.</p><p><br /></p><p>The other mint is Nicomedia, which perhaps due to geographic location close to Thracia ended up issuing IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG for the augusti, but PROVIDENTIAE CAESS (but with a Jupiter design, not campgate) for the caesars. However, with all of the confusion of changing territories, changing coinage, and new caesars, it evidentially took a couple of tries for Nicomedia to settle into this pattern, resulting in the interesting transitional types such as my coin above.</p><p><br /></p><p>At Nicomedia there are two transitional types for the caesars before settling down with PROVIDENTIAE CAESS:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG</p><p>2) IOVI CONSERVATORI CAESS</p><p>3) PROVIDENTIAE CAESS (with same Jupiter design as preceding IOVI types)</p><p><br /></p><p>There is also an interesting progression of obverse titles on these three issues, as Nicomedia decides what to call these newly minted caesars!</p><p><br /></p><p>1) Initially, on the IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG type, the caesars get long titles, and the novel designation of &quot;NOV CS&quot; (NOVVS CAESAR = NEW CAESAR), or &quot;N CS&quot;, before transitioning to NOB CS then NOB CAES (NOBILLISSIMVS CAESAR).</p><p><br /></p><p>2) On IOVI CONSERVATORI CAESS, all prefix names are dropped and short titles ending in NOB CAES are used.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) Finally, on PROVIDENTIAE CAESS, Nicomedia settles on the long titles that will be used at the other mints, now adding a DN prefix and sticking with the expected NOB CAES.</p><p><br /></p><p>For Crispus, whose full name was FL(AVIVS) IVL(IVS) VA(LERIVS) CRISPVS, there is also another transitional change. On this initial IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG type, he is referred to as FL VA CRISPVS NOV CS, whereas on the PROVIDENTIAE CAESS type he is referred to as DN FL IVL CRISPVS NOB CAES, using the &quot;FL IVL&quot; that becomes normal for him, rather than &quot;FL VA&quot;. This unexpected title seems to have resulted in an error in RIC. These IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG coins for the caesars are all scarce-rare, and for Crispus RIC is only able to cite Gnecchi from Rivista Italiani di Numismatica (RIN) 1901 where he gave a legend of &quot;FL VN CRISPVS NOCAS&quot; (sic), which appears to be a misreading of &quot;FL VA CRISPVS NOV CS&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Licinus II also has a transitional name on this issue (RIC 26-27), using his name CONSTANTINVS (!), which was also used on the pre-reform Alexandrian nummus above.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are a lot of gaps in RIC for the obverse legends used on this first Nicomedia issue. It seems that all of &quot;NOV CS&quot;, &quot;N CS&quot;, &quot;NOB CS&quot; and &quot;NOB CAES&quot; were used for each of the three caesars, resulting in 4*3 = 12 types, of which RIC only lists 4 (RIC 25-28). At least 9 of the expected 12 types have been seen.</p><p><br /></p><p>** Constantine also reformed his coinage, perhaps at the same time as Licinius, although in the west the nummus (now including the caesars) continues on for a few more years. According to RIC Constantine&#039;s reform date is later, c.318-319, with no overlap between the nummus and new denomination.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please post any short-lived transitional types, or anything related to the new caesars Crispus, Constantine II and Licinius II.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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