So why would a proud bottom feeder spend $35 on this piece of crap?
IMP LICINIVS PF AVGGENIO POPV-LI ROMANI - RS?Minted 312-313AD in RomeCoins of Licinius are common and so are coins with the reverse legend GENIO POPVLI ROMANI, about 4000 types are known! However, combine these two elements on one coin what you get is something rarer than you might think.
I've been looking for one of these for about 12 months, for the last 6 months pretty religiously (after this thread:
https://goccf.com/t/120305&SearchTerms=Licinius) using half a dozen different search terms on
ebay, Vcoins and a couple of other sites.
In all that time I found nothing, about 10 different variations of these were made at Rome but none are shown on Wildwinds, none on acsearch, none on numisology.com, none on Beastcoins, infact I cant find a single picture of one of these coins anywhere on the web, strange considering RIC classifies them as 'common' and its very unusual to not be able to find 'common' coins
If anyone does know of any examples online I would like to see them
So why is it rare? Well, Licinius was technically Augustus of the Western Empire in 308, Galerius chose him personally. Unfortunately Maxentius had not read the script and decided to claim much of it for himself, Constantine having the rest. Licinius had to make do with parts of the Eastern Empire until Constantine defeated Maxentius and took the whole of the Western Empire including Rome for himself. Licinius did not get his lands back but Constantine minted the above coins in his name in Rome.
This arrangement only lasted about a year before Constantine and Licinius went to war with each other in 314AD. This quoted from numisology.com also hints at this reverse legend being usurped for propaganda in the case of Licinius, again adding to the difficulty of finding one.
Quote:
Licinius' appointment in 308 as Augustus for the Western half of the empire was not recognized by Constantine, who controlled the mints in Britain and Gaul, nor by Maxentius, who controlled the mints in Italy and Carthage. As a result, the earliest issues of coins in Licinius' name were struck in Siscia- - "the only mint actually controlled by Licinius- - "and the other eastern mints controlled by Galerius and Maximinus II.
Quote:
These first post-Carnuntum issues from the eastern mints represented a subtle thematic shift: instead of celebrating GENIO POPVLI ROMANI ("the Genius of the Roman People"), these coins had reverse legends of GENIO AVGVSTI, GENIO CAESARIS, or GENIO IMPERATORIS, celebrating the genius or creative spirit of the emperors themselves. These legends represented the policies of Galerius. When Galerius died in 311 and Licnius took over his Balkan territories and mints, all of the mints in his control began striking the IOVI CONSERVATORI reverse types that became his standard type for the rest of his reign.
Quote:
The first western coins to recognize Licinius were not struck until 310, when the alliance between Constantine and Maximianus/Maxentius had broken down and Maximianus was executed. These coins were struck by Constantine in Londinium and Treveri. Maxentius never struck any coins in Licinius' name, but after Constantine defeated Maxentius in 312, he forged an alliance with Licinius and from that time, coins of Licinius were struck in all of Constantine's mints.
This is the only example I had before today:
I guess I've only upgraded from 'ugly' to 'poor' but I'm happy enough
Valuable? No. Rare? I think so and the web agrees but RIC does not. Interesting? I hope so.
Posted 01/04/2013 08:55 am
and possibly a banana or two 
with Chrsat...
