
Constantius I
A.D. 296
AE follis 26x27mm 10.8g
FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C; laureate head right.
GENIO POPVLI ROMANI; Genius standing left, modius on head, naked but for chlamys over left shoulder, right holding patera, left cornucopiae.
RIC VI Lugdunum 17a
This coin is part of the so-called "Invasion of Britain" coinage. Initially, numismatists believed that these coins without mintmarks must have been struck in London; but Bastien showed that they were actually from Lugdunum. So the theory became that this coinage was struck for use by Constantius while fighting Carausius...maybe even struck at an unknown continental mint (maybe Boulogne) staffed by mint workers from Lugdunum. More recently, Drost has theorized that this issue without mintmark is actually just the first issue from Lyon and found an obverse match with the PLA issue. Of course, Drost could have it reversed, The PLA issue was earlier (295- 296) and then this unmarked issue (296), as RIC has it arranged.





















