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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,825 |
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
First and foremost, I came on here looking for a quick answer to my question...that was about 2.5 hours ago. I have quite enjoyed reading all of the posts on here, the stories, and the education available...I can see why coin collecting is addicting :) That being said...I am not a collector. I am a "happen to be in possession" type guy. We were cleaning out my late grandfathers house and he had this neat little wooden log drawer thing on his desk. We opened it up and it had his dog tags from he served, my grandmothers wedding ring, couple little trinkets, and it had these two coins inside as well. We know nothing about coins, especially old coins. I can only say with some confidence, they look Roman :) We are just trying to find out a little history on these coins, kind of peek into why they were in this little storage drawer, and basically anything identifying them... I really appreciate any and all help the forum can provide!! Here are the two coins:     |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
582 Posts |
The first one is Constantine the great with the obverse reading IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG and the reverse IOVI CONSERVATORI the figure is Jupiter standing left, holding Victory on a globe and scepter; eagle to left.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
582 Posts |
The second is the son of Constantine, Crispus. The obverse reads CRISPVS NOB CAES and the reverse CAESARVMNOSTRORVM with VOT V in a wreath.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
 to the community I believe the first coin is of Constantius I (the father of Constantine The Great). Both he and his son used the same legend but Constantius I had a beard which this coin appears to have. The reverse is IOVI CONSERVATORI with the mint mark of SIS for Siscia. The second coin is of the son of Constantine the Great Crispus. This is the son that Constantine had killer because his wife said he tried to seduce her. The reverse is know as a votive or vows. I can't make out the mint mark though. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
914 Posts |
Your second coin is Crispus from the Rome mint.
Crispus
A.D. 320- 321
CRISPVS NOB CAES; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
CAESARVM NOSTRORVM surrounding wreath enclosing VOT V.
In ex. R eros T
RIC VII Rome 229
Part of this mint mark is a cryptogram, and is Greek for eros, which in Latin is amor. Amor and Roma are palindromes-- they read the same backward or forward. Amor was the secret name of Rome.
The first letter in this mintmark is the Latin letter "R", for Rome. The next symbol is a ligature, which consists of two Greek letters epsilon and rho, and then an upward sweep which transforms the ligature into the Greek letter omega. What looks like a "C' is actually the Greek letter sigma. The last letter is the Latin "T" (Tertia) which is the third workshop. The Greek cryptogram section reads epsilon rho omega sigma or Eros.
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New Member
 United States
3 Posts |
Wow! You guys are not only amazing, but fast :)
I had no clue there was so much information to decipher on those coins!
Thank you!
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
946 Posts |
The first coin is of Constantine I, of the Siscia mint. Of the same series as my former example (I sold it) below:   The Constantius "Bearded" versus Constantine I "clean-shaven" is not a reliable way to identify Folles alone. Of course, best of all to have a clear legend, as yours has. Whilst for this Siscia series Constantine has some serious Sideburns going on, there are issues from the Thessalonica mint that have him with a Beard, like in the example below from Wild Winds (a website well worth checking out):  http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/cons...I_050b.1.txtEdited by Masis
02/21/2014 2:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
3626 Posts |
Hi Empire!
Look up Crispus a lovely gory story.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
914 Posts |
Quote:
I believe the first coin is of Constantius I (the father of Constantine The Great). Both he and his son used the same legend but Constantius I had a beard which this coin appears to have The first coin is without a doubt Constantine I. Constantius did not have any IOVI CONSERVATORI types, but did have some IOVI CONSERVAT types, but he used a different legend CONSTANTIVS, never to be confused with CONSTANTINVS. He doesn't have a beard on this coin, but a long moustache like the coin below, which is also an IOVI from Siscia  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4981 Posts |
nice coins to happen to be in possession of.  |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
You got very lucky to just happen to have that Crispus. the r(EROS) mintmark is very hard to come by and very sought after.
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
Thanks for sharing that Wild Winds website, soo much information and knowledge to soak in. You could spend a life time on roman coins alone learning and figuring out! I am humbled at how quick and ready you guys present this info. I see there is also some debate/opinion on the coin, is this common? The coins seem to exhibit similar characteristics, wording, etc...that makes it somewhat hard it seems to narrow down.
We still dont know why or how they ended up in my grandfathers drawer, but they definitely have a cool history it seems. I've been reading up on Crispus and Constantine since I first posted, its neat the story a small coin opens up to.
Everyone is here is pretty awesome! Thanks once more for all the info.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Mistakes happen a lot, its a very tricky reference system with all the legend breaks and things. I tend to make pretty stupid mistakes... Luckily, on this board, people are more sympathetic with it than some other places. The debate usually works out to give a better ID, so its all good.
If you stick with it, you can get there too. Took me a little while, but I cleaned coins which helped. You can get them remarkably cheap (well, mostof the time, you'd be lucky to find another EROS in a hurry).
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I agree with Ben, congrats on the EROS mintmark, it is indeed sought after. It turns what would normally be a $5 coin into something a lot more interesting  |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,825 |
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Posted 02/21/2014 1:38 pm
