Roman Coins Of The London Mint: 296-325 Ad

I am glad you liked the coin, Ian. What a contrast Fausta was to her mother in-law, Helena! She was the second wife of Constantine (his first wife bore him one son -- Crispus) and bore him three future Emperor sons: Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans. She was also the daughter of the old retired (although he couldn't stay in retirement) Seniore Augustus MAXIMIAN HERCULIUS (Maximianus) who offered her in marriage to Constantine in order to further his own ambitions. She subsequently betrayed her father when he plotted to overthrow Constantine which led him to commit suicide. She accused Crispus, Caesar and son of Constantine, of attempting to seduce her which led to his execution by order of his father. She later recanted her story which led to her own execution in a most grizzly way (either by boiling in water alive or scalding in boiling water depending on the source) by the order of Constantine. By any measure, Fausta was quite a Gal!.



RIC Vol VII, London, No.300 (similar) - Killingholme Hoard
Obverse: Fausta bust right - FLAV MAX FAVSTA AVG
Reverse: Fausta holding two infant sons (Constantine II and Constantius II) - SALVS REIPVBLICAE


James

If nothing else the Romans had interesting personal lives!

The bit that shocked me the most was that she was betrothed to Constantine by Maximianus in 293 aged 4! Constantine still went on to marry Minervina in 303 and father Crispus but when Fausta was about 18 he ditched Minervina and married her. Wasn't aware of these timelines until today.

Also read some interesting stuff claiming Constantine II was prob illegitimate. It would make some sense, having been with Fausta for about 8 years and not producing a second heir Constantine may have felt the pressure to produce and 'looked elsewhere'. It would also explain why some sources have Constantine II and Constantius IIs birth dates as Feb and August of the same year.

I must say it often puzzles me when Christians identify with Constantine as for the overwhelming majority of his life his actions were far from what we would consider Christian.

What do you think of this one James?

17b Galerius Maximian?



9.11gs 28mm

Difficult to tell from pictures but seems to be quite lot of silvering left. Reverse stamp is weak in places but the obverse looks excellent.

My heads spinning now! I looked at your links from yesterday including the academic paper and even scanned through the Bastien PDF but must admit my schoolboy French is not really upto the job.

Unfortunately some of the pics in the ancient.info thread are either no longer available or not available to non-members, I think I got all of the main facts though, it was a very detailed discussion!


As far as the above coin goes I have made the following observations (rightly or wrongly):


Large head variety rather than small - proportions would suggest Continental mint.

Long laureate ribbon end across bust - would suggest Continental mint.

Well modelled almost cherubic Genius - Undecided as to implication.

Pronounced horizontal spiral marks on cornucopia - Undecided as to implication.

The lettering I would say is overall Lugdunum but perhaps matches latter issues more than the pre-invasion coinage:

Displays taller more open lettering characteristics - would suggest Continental mint.

Less of a breack on reverse than the "Intermediate Group" - would suggest Continental mint.

B P are S some well executed and some not - Undecided as to implication.

Obv legend show flat topped and bottomed As and Vs - would suggest London mint.

Obv legend shows good size, round O - would suggest London mint.

Rev legend shows flatter Os and uneveness in hieght - would suggest Continental mint.


Despite the above observations I must admit I'm still a little confused - It matches a 17b that maridvnvm posted in the above thread and I think differs enough from your 14b (thought to be 17b) in the same thread. I would say though that perhaps the two different sides on the above coin both tell contrasting stories, even if they are 'grey'.

The obverse text could be London but I think the Bust is continental, the reverse looks continental but not enough for me to say 100%.

If I had to guess between 17 and 14 I would say 17 but not with huge certainty!

Let me know if I'm way off the mark and what your opinion is - I'm thinking about a theory about the above mis-matches but dont want to share it yet, if a all!

You are not the first to have a "spinning head" -- as you can see, this whole section of RIC is badly in need of revision (Sutherland was spot-on when he described this series as one of great difficulty) -- I think Fitzwilliam will be the eventual cataloger. Every fresh hoard find throws new light on the early London unmarked folles. If you didn't read the Stewartby article, here it is:

"Revue numismatique", 1999, Vol 6, issue 154, pp 183-193, Lord Stewartby -- Some rare and unpublished roman coins of the London Mint in the Paris collection


Ian, your attribution is correct -- RIC Vol VI, Lugdunum, Galerius, 17b. Nice catch, Congratulations! Pre-Invasion coins are so hard to come by. I have a couple of duplicate Pre-Invasion coins -- I will send you the following one:

RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, Group I, (iv), folles, Class I, No. 14-21
c. 296, 10.5-8.75 gm, reverse axis 6 or 12 o'clock
Laureate head, right, with bare neck truncation.

17a - CONSTANTIUS

FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C .................................. GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI


actual size of coin


BTW, Ian, you can see that "Thread drift" here has caused much overlap with the "British Invasion coinage of Constantius" thread.

James

bobbyhelmet wrote:

I agree. According to all of the reference works I have read his father, Constantius, by consensus, embodied far more Christian qualities than his son did.

James

Forgot to add - Rev legend shows flatter Os and uneveness in hieghts - this could suggest Continental mint, maybe I can increase that 10% a tiny bit.