This is the story of a small hoard, but it is a bit speculative.
I purchased this group of coins because, based on patina, they seem to have been deposited together. They are all from Lyons and the two soldiers types and Constantinopolis were struck circa A.D. 330's. The Crispus was struck a bit earlier around A.D. 324. The really interesting coin is the Sol; which was struck between A.D. 315- 316; almost 20 years before the youngest coin in the group -- ✶PLG was struck in A.D. 333- 334.
So the SOL coin would have been demonetized by the monetary reform of the VLPP in A.D. 318 and the two standard GE's would have been replaced by the A.D. 335 reform where the number of nummi to a pound was raised to 196. (According to Harl's "Coinage in the Roman Economy" the number of bronze coins per pound was 108 in A.D. 318- 330 and 132 for A.D. 330- 335...see chart below) The flans had to be made smaller to make more coins, so now there is only room for one standard. So these coins would seem to have been hidden away circa A.D. 335.
It's also interesting that I bought these from a seller in France, though I do not know the actual find spot. The seller is from Lédenon; which is 216km from Lyons. Lédenon was already a city by Roman times and is named after the Gallic deity Letinno --‘the housing’. I plan on keeping them together for now.
