The end of my own March Madness

Finishing up with my March buys are Constantine the Great and his son Constantine II. I have crumbling examples of both from my Uncleaned lots. This is a huge upgrade.


Constantine the Great, Early 307 - 22 May 337 A.D.
Billon centenionalis, RIC VII Siscia 73, Cohen VII 639, SRCV IV 16304, 2.792g, 20.7mm, 0o, 3rd officina, Siscia mint, 319 A.D.
obverse IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate, helmeted, and cuirassed bust right; reverse VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP, two Victories holding shield inscribed VOT / P R over altar, S on altar, GSIS• in exergue



Constantine II, 22 May 337 - March or April 340 A.D.
Billon centenionalis, apparently unpublished, RIC VII Siscia 116 - 117 (for obv. type) and 138 - 139 (for rev. type, issues of the Licinii),
2.773g, 19.0mm, 180o, 5th officina, Siscia mint, as caesar, 320 A.D.
obverse CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C, laureate and cuirassed bust left; reverse VIRTVS EXERCIT, vexillum inscribed VOT / XX in two lines, two seated barbarian captives back-to-back flanking base, Christogram (Chi-Rho monogram) left, ESIS star in exergue

That Constantine II coin is on wildwinds and its this exact coin. These will go well with the Constantine Era collection.

What are everyone else's Constantine I and II coins?

 

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Beautiful upgrades. Congrats and nice selections!
I have a similar Constantine, though mine is from an uncleaned lot...

CONSTANTINE I THE GREAT
307-337 CE Follis. Siscia.
Obv: IMP CONSTANTINVS PF
AVG.
Helmeted and cuirassed bust
left, holding spear over shoulder
and shield.
Rev: VICTORIAE LAETAE
PRINC PERP / · BSIS ·.
Two victories holding shield
inscribed VOT/PR over altar

And my Cony 2


ConstantineII
317-340CEAE3Siscia (Sisak),
330-333 AD.
Obv. CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C,
laureate and cuirassed bust right.
Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS, two
soldiers standing facing one another,
spear in outer hand, inner hand on
shield resting on ground; between
them two standards.
Ex. ESIS.
RIC VII, p. 453, 220.

 

Nice!

 

Great coin and quite an upgrade I assume! Here's my Constantine I and II's...

 

edit:


Constantine AE3 Follis. 312-313 AD. IMP C CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate cuirassed bust right / SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI, legionary eagle between two vexilla, the left surmounted by a hand, the right by a wreath, MOSTP in ex. Ostia RIC VI 94



Constantine II AE follis. AD 317. D N FL CL CONSTANTINVS NOB C, laureate draped bust left, holding globe, sceptre and mappa / PROVIDEN-TIAE CAESS, Campgate with three turrets, no door and two stars above. Mintmark MHT epsilon.
Heraclea
RIC VII 20 Cohen 167

 

SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI on a Constantine? Must be a rare type. Anyway, that's a cool coin @randygeki !

 

Thanks. Got lucky. It was at the local shop.

 

My favourite Constantines:

 

Wow- that Constantine II must be close to the 1909-S VDB of LRBs. I mentioned once how these were the closest to collecting Lincoln cents and as I recall @dougsmit had a lot of info to add about that. I did get a good deal on a "very rare" Constans according to the RICs but then found there had been huge hoards discovered since the RIC VII(1966) that shuffled up all the previous "RRR" ratings. So I decided to leave the LRB collecting to others like yourself. Those are big upgrades to crumbling ones indeed. I think you will be opening the BMC-WEST soon with all of these unpublished rarities. Keep it up.

 

Nice Constantines @Jbruce

Personally, I cannot go the cleaning route to coins. Don't have the patience...

Here are my Con-Men:


RI Constantine I Folles 306-337 CE Captives VOTA Banner


RI Constantine II 337-340 CE AE3 GLORIA EXERCITVS Glory to the Army 2 Soldiers 2 Standards

 

Fantastic upgrades, beautifull examples! I am still looking for my first Constantine I/ II/ and the III....I have the IV/ V/ VI/ VII/ VIII/ IX/ X!

 

Everyone's got some nice coins. I'm patient with the cleaning, however, I forgot about them. My job keeps me busy but now I just leave them on my desk so I can see them and remind myself.

As for these Romans, I'm only getting one of each emperor. So I'm always looking for great examples and that's it. Perhaps later on I'll expand. I have to keep my focus on completing my Greek Gods which I only have 3 left to collect. Then I know I'm switching to the Nymphs.

I do want to collect the 12 Caesars and so on but some of those emperors, like Otho, are way out of my monthly coin budget. I will have to save up several monthly coin budgets just to get one. This process will take time.

 

@Jbruce Your Greek gods collection should be fantastic when it is done. Have you seen how Deacon Ray lays out his coins with images,explanations etc? That would be great with the gods. Are you only collecting the Olympians? Here is a chart of the "greater family".

 

Might it be considered a bad attitude to point out that you can get a hundred different LRB's that are more rare than the 1909S VDB? What is the most popular and high priced LRB that collectors of the period often want? Perhaps the snake and labarum?
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=175939

 

Well I'm just doing the Olympians for now. I haven't seen too many titans. I'm trying to stick to the Greek Gods and not the Roman equivalents. Though I will do Greek Heroes as well

 

Thanks for the info as always Doug. A $13,000 Follis - amazing. Since I was a teenage ancient collector and only recently returned to the endeavor I may not have the proper etiquette around other ancient coin folks. It probably borders on blasphemy or maybe heresy to some to compare ancients in any way to Lincolns or Roosevelts. The bad attitude is understood.

 

Don't worry Mike we compare and contrast collecting modern and ancient now and then to highlight the differences and similarities.

And to gently poke fun at modern collectors because most of us started that way.

 

Would need a lot of help here:

I am trying to attribute this Constantinus and I am stuck at the name of the coin and the officina letter. Some references say it is a centenionalis, others call it a reduced follis or nummus. Is a centenionalis another name for reduced follis?

The officina letter seems to be an H, but I am not sure If it is an H according to
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Roman Mints

that means 8th officina ?

19 mm, 2.73 g;
Ob.: CONSTA-NTINVS AVG Bust of Constantine I, helmeted, cuirassed, right
Rev.: VIRTVS-EXERCIT Standard inscribed VOT/XX flanked by two seated captives; Mintmark S/(F on H_L)//HSIS star on crescent.

 

We don't know the actual name...follis is old school, newer trend is nummus.

H is not a possibility for your workshop. Siscia only used 5 workshops at this time, and yours looks like an A.

 

Here is my favorite coin of Constantine.