Hello everybody. This is my first post, so I hope this is the right place in the forum for the topic. So, the reason for my post is that I stumbled upon an old coin. I tried to find more information about it, and it turned out to be from the Roman Empire. It is 20 mm in diameter and weights around 3.6 grams. By trying to understand what it is written on it and some pictures from the Internet, I managed to find that it is from emperor Constantine The Great. Since I would be happy to know more about it, I would be grateful of you could advise me how exactly to do that. I compared it with some photographs I found, but there are differences. Also it turned out that taking pictures of coins is quite tricky, so I apologize for the quality.
Its obverse legend reads IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG and the reverse legend reads SOLI INVICTO COMITI. Hope this helps.
Welcome, @Nik23. I don't do much with late Roman bronze so I'll sit back and let the others tell you more. It does appear authentic to me, albeit a very common coin, and porous (corroded). So legitimately ancient, but not very valuable monetarily (unless it's some scarce variant, but I'm out of my depth there). These sort of 4th century coins of the Constantinian period generally sell in the <$20 range, and often <$10 for ones in this condition. Take my information in the most general sense, and with the proverbial grain of salt.
SOLI INVICTO COMITI means something like "The invicible sun my companion" FYI Good start with ancients. I hope you stick with it. As @lordmarcovan says it is not especially valuable, but you can pick up a collection of these late Romans at very reasonable prices. The period spanning 300 A.D. to around 400 A.D. is the sweet spot of late roman bronze coins. After 400 or so the crudity and small size plus the scarcity means there are few bargains in good condition.
It is indeed a fun area to collect in. Historical and budget-friendly. Hope you'll stick around if this coin lit a spark of interest in you. You can keep it, and years or decades after you've built a stunning collection, you can show off that humble coin and proclaim, "this is the one that started it all!" The fact that you already took the time to do some research on your own is one encouraging sign. You seem to be above the curve in comparison to most newbies we get.
Constantine I A.D. 314 20mm 3.6g IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. SOLI INVICTO COMITI; Sol rad., raising r. hand, globe in l.; stg. l., chlamys across l. shoulder, across fields R-F. In exergue R✶P RIC VII Rome 19
