Constantine I GENIO POP from London and the Pict connection

[Victor]

Someone sent me pics of this coin, which is rated as scarce in RIC, but seems a little harder to find examples.


This coin was minted in London A.D. 305- 306, the same time that Constantius I was fighting the Picts north of the Antonine Wall.


Constantine I
A.D. 305- 306           
CONSTANTINVS NOBILI C; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust.                 
GENIO POPVLI ROMANI; Genius standing left, modius on head, naked but for chlamys over left shoulder, right holding patera, left cornucopiae.
No mintmark
RIC VI London 66

[Nikko]

A very early issue, first time i see one of this.

[seth]

The obv. legend is NOBILI C. It's a very nice coin and my impression is that it's rarer than your friend thinks.

[Victor]

Thanks Seth, I didn't pay enough attention. I fixed the description, the funny thing, is that this example is rated as scarce.

[Nikko]

Is it the first bronze coin struck in the name of Constantine?

[Victor]

Is it the first bronze coin struck in the name of Constantine?

Yes, the GENIO POP from London was first and RIC 66 is the first one listed in this series for Constantine.

Other mints (Trier & Lyons) also started minting for Constantine around the same time in A.D. 305. As Constantine met his father in Gaul during the summer of A.D. 305 prior to departing for Brittania for the battle against the Picts, the first coins of Constantine as Caesar may have actually been struck at Lyons or Trier and then London after father and son arrived.

[l.e]

Very interesting 

[Gavin]

So I lurk on this lovely board from time to time. I know I should be more active. But I wanted to resurrect this thread for a moment.

I’m trying to figure out what the first bronze coin of Constantine might be. Naturally this thread piqued my interest, with its suggestion that coins for Constantine were struck at Trier, Lyons, London possibly as early as 305.

But when I go to RIC VI, the introductions to the coinage of London (p. 117), Trier (p. 151), and Lugdunum (p. 234) list two periods under GROUP 2, with PERIOD 2 delimiting the coinage of Constantine as Caesar to be after July 25, 306. I take from these RIC pages that coins were struck for Constantine only after the death of Constantius. Am I reading RIC wrong? Are there other resources that posit a 305 date for some of these coins of Constantine? Or does the 305 date results from a misreading of RIC, paying attention only to the GROUP heading and not the PERIOD qualifications below?

[Victor]

Yes, I was wrong with my dates for Constantine, as coins with him as Caesar were minted only after the death of his father in July 306. I did indeed copy the group heading and ignored the period qualifications. Sorry for the confusion. It would be tempting to think that Constantius I was indeed striking coins for his son as Caesar in A.D. 305, but as coins of Severus exist as Caesar, it would seem unlikely that Constantine would have coins struck at the same time, so his Caesar conage must come a bit later, only after Galerius recognized him. Sorry for the confusion.

[Gavin]

I'm very glad for this qualification because it reconciles well with the resources on the coinage. Now to find some of those early Constantinian folles! I'd love to get a RIC VI London 66.