Constantine I hybrid votive with unlisted mintmark from Arles

[Victor]

I find this coin pretty interesting. The style looks good, so I believe it could be official. The first problem is the reverse legend- CAESARVM NOSTRORVM for a Constantine I obverse. So it would seem to be a mule, but the mintmark (TAR) is not listed either. T star AR is recorded, so maybe the engraver left out the star, but in the footnotes of p261, RIC VII mentions several coins like this- "coins of otherwise regular appearance of irregular m.m." I have also seen several other examples with a similar mintmark, so maybe this mintmark deserved to be listed in RIC rather than just being included in a footnote, of course, it would be helpful to examine and compare many more of this type.



Constantine I
A.D. 322- 323
18mm   2.9gm
CONSTAN-TINVS AVG, laureate bust
CAESARVM NOSTRORVM in laurel wreath VOT X.
In exergue TAR
cf RIC VII Arles 252/254

[Genio popvli romani]

Very interesting. I remember to have already seen such a coin. It has been sold by CGB, same obverse excepted break and missing G, same reverse but different dies. Here is this nummus which is, in my opinion, an imitative issue, unlike yours.

www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=355120

[Victor]

Yes, that one does indeed seem to be an imitative. Of course mine could very well be also, but the style is pretty good. I hope I get the coin, I won it from an Ebay auction from a new seller in Poland.

[Victor]

I just got the coin and it is very nice in hand. However, I am inclined to believe that it is probably an imitation. The style is very good, but Constantine's chin is a bit off. On this coin it is slightly receded and while I have seen similar from Ticinum,  Arles usually has a fairly strong chin. The other problem is that official mules are very rare and every other example of this type that I have ever seen is clearly unofficial.