Dear all, After checking and reading this forum for some months I have decided to join the discussion. There seem to be a lot of friendly and helpful people around here! I am a relatively new collector of coins of Constantine the Great and his family (although I think he has somewhat of a bad reputation on this forum.. ). I am especially interested in coins from his western mints (London, Lyon, Trier). Ofcourse I proud to post my latest acquisition: Constantius Caesar AD 293-305, AE silvered Follis (26mm, 9.22 gram) Lugdunum (‘Unmarked Class I’) AD 295-96 FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C; laur. bust r. GENIO POPVLI ROMANI; Genius stg.l., holding patera and cornucopia RIC 17a Happy Holidays! Best, Adriaan
Welcome to the Forum, Adriaan. That's a nice Constantine you have there. Indeed, the folks here at Coin Talk are very helpful. For instance, I don't know much about Constantine family bronzes, but a while back I got a Crispus that I posted to get some feedback on and the responses were very helpful: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my...rst-campgate-only-795-00.303424/#post-2861906
Welcome! What a great, historic coin for your first post! (Constantius not Constantine incidentally). Coins of this series are hard to come by. My write-up: In 293 Diocletian finalized the Institution of a Tetrarchy -- government of the Empire by four interacting rulers -- two Augusti assisted by two subordinate Caesars, which each Augustus would personally select. The two Caesars, chosen because of their proven leadership abilities, assisted the Augusti with civil administration and command of the armies. Caius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was chosen by Diocletian to be his Caesar of the East and Flavius Valerius Constantius was chosen by Maximian Herculius be his Caesar of the West. The first assignment given Constantius by Maximian Herculius was to remove Carausius, the usurper Augustus of secessionist Britain, and restore that former possession to the Empire. Constantius thereupon beseiged and captured Boulogne and then wrested coastal Gaul from Carausius. Constantius now set about planning the invasion, occupation and restoration of secessionist Britain to the Empire. One of the first orders of business for Constantius in 294 was to insure that a supply of reformed aes coinage (folles) - now the commonplace legal tender of the Roman Empire - was available for use not only by his occupying force, but also by the British civilian populace. To that end Constantius established a Mint in Gaul (exact location usually listed as unknown, although some French sources list it as Boulogne), manned by Lugdunese workers, to produce this invasion coinage - unmarked (i.e. without a mint mark) issued in the names of Diocletian & Maximian Herculius as Augusti and Constantius & Galerius Maximian as Caesars. Notes In his introductory notes to RIC VI, Londinium, Sutherland states that "Bastien is to be followed in regarding the umarked coins of Class I as an issue prepared in advance for Constantius' invasion of Britain in 296". Coin obverses depict right facing busts with bare neck truncation and laureate heads with the long laurel wreath ribbon laying on the neck. The Genius of the Roman People reverse depiction and inscription is standard with no mint mark. The inscriptional lettering is relatively large with delicate letterforms. Reverse axis is 6 or 12 o'clock. Weight range is 10.5 to 8.75 gm. Invasion Coinage produced at (unknown) Mint in Gaul RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, Group I, (iv), folles, Class I, No. 14-21, c. 296, 10.5-8.75 gm. No. 14a - Diocletian: IMP C DIOCLETIANVS PF AVG ............................. GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI 9.8 gm No. 14b - Maximian Herculius: IMP C MAXIMIANVS PF AVG ................................. GENIO POP -- VLI ROMANI 8.9 gm No. 17a - Constantius: FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C .............................. GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI 10.1 gm Lightly silvered No. 17b - Galerius Maximian: C VAL MAXIMIANVS NOB C ..................................... GENIO POPV LI ROMANI 9.8 gm
Welcome @Adriaan CONSTANTIUS I AE Follis OBVERSE: CONSTANTIVS NOB CAES, Laurate bust, right REVERSE: SAC MON VRB AVGG ET CAESS NN, Moneta standing left, holding scales and cornucopiae. Star in right field. Mintmark RT Struck at Rome 302-303 AD 8.8g, 27mm RIC VI 106a CONSTANTIUS I AE Follis or Nummus OBVERSE: IMP C CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, laureate head right REVERSE: FIDES MI-LITVM ("The loyalty of the military"), Fides enthroned holding a scepter in right hand and a military Ensign of the left hand; pellet right in field; TT in ex. Struck at Ticinum 305-306 AD 9.15g, 28mm RIC VI 55a; Sear 14170 CONSTANTIUS I AE Follis OBVERSE: CONSTANTIVS NOB CAES, laureate head right (large head type) REVERSE: SALVIS AVGG ET CAESS FEL KART, Carthago standing facing, head left, in long robe, holding fruits in both hands. Mintmark Gamma Struck at Carthage 298-299 AD 7.41g, 28mm RIC VI 32a
Welcome Adriaan! I'll pile on with a Constantius Follis: Obverse: IMP CONSTANTIVS PF AVG Reverse: GENIO POPVLI ROMANI Mint: Siscia
Welcome aboard. The Constantinian era has a lot of very interesting and affordable coins, and the mintmarks add a lot of variety. It's not my favorite area, but here's a similar coin I have from Sisica (RIC 169a). I think London mint coins are very cool, but so far I only have one uncleaned coin that I can't seem to get the mud off of. Terrific silvering on your coin, by the way.
Welcome. The first thing you will notice here is that we are quite a diverse bunch with many specialties. Some (Jamesicus and Victor come to mind) could write a book on the period while others do not see a difference between Constantius and Connstantinus. We have people who collect only Roman Republican and others who are interested in a hundred other specialties. We have several generalist collectors (including myself). We do have some who only collect coins of people they find morally agreeable and others who don't care how politically incorrect these people were. I hope you will find common ground for discussion with us all. My favorite Constantine and family. AE1 as Caesar by Maxentius from Rome: Crispus AE3 Rome Helena AE3 Antioch Constantius I Caesar pre-reform antoninianus with thunderbolt mintmark That is a very nice Lugdunum follis. Welcome again.
Welcome to the club! I probably would be termed as a "herectic" since I also collect all other periods in history I do not have any coins from Constantine i....but i have some from his sons AV Solidus ND Siscia Mint 2 known FDC Constantius II/ Western Roman Empire
I only have one Constantius I coin and a Caesar. Coins of him as Augustus are more scarce in comparison to as Caesar. Roman Imperial, Constantius I as Caesar (303-305 AD) AE Follis, Lugdunum mint; 6.4g, 27.68mm OBV: CONSTANTIVS NOB C, laureate, cuirassed bust left. REV: GENIO POP-VLI ROMANI, Genius standing left by altar, modius on head, naked except for chlamys over left shoulder, holding patera and cornucopiae. Star in right field. Mintmark PLG. REF: RIC VI Lyons 180a.
Well, Adriaan, you actually have come to my rescue! I have been absent from this Forum a lot recently, mainly due to health issues including a hard fall that has laid me up and made it difficult for me to participate here. As a result, I missed out on the “Secret Santa” program organized by John Antony. But now I get to redeem myself. I have a duplicate Galerius Maximian “British Invasion Coin” - Lugdunum, 17b (refer to my previous post) that I will send you if you PM me with your shipping address - my Christmas present to you - then you will have exemplars of the two Caesars in this historic series. I will dig up a pic of the coin from my archives and post it here. My family is about to descend on me very shortly today for a Christmas gathering so there will be a short delay.
Well I only have 2 coins from this family. Both are folles of Constantine. Welcome to this great group of coin fanatics.
Welcome to the forum @Adriaan. I really like your new Constantius. Your username makes me think of Rocky.
Welcome. Constantine I Londinium mint 310 to 312 AD AE Follis Obvs: CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right. Revs: CONCORD MILIT, Concordia standing half-left, holding two standards. Star to right, PLN in ex. 21x23mm, 4.55g Constantine I Trier mint 310 to 313 AD AE Follis Obvs: IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG, laureate, and cuirassed bust right. Revs: SOLI INVICTO COMITI, Radiate bust of sol right. 23x24mm, 3.98g Constantine I Trier mint 310 to 313 AD AE Follis Obvs: CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. Revs: MARTI CONSERVVATORI, Helmeted and cuirassed bust of Mars right. 18x20mm, 3.35g
