The field marks that have Christian significance consist of chi-rho’s and crosses. “Early Christian crosses came in several forms including the equilateral or Greek +, the letter tau T, the letter chi X sometimes called St. Andrew’s cross, the tau-rho monogram and the Latin cross, crux immissa.†Some historians and numismatists debate whether these symbols actually had any Christian relation. The chi-rho appeared for the first time in the third century B.C. on a Greek bronze of Ptolemy, and certainly could not have referred to Christ. The various field marks on coins usually served an internal function meant to show which workers were responsible for the coin, and the mint supervisor, or procurator monetae, probably picked these marks. Since Constantine had been portrayed with Christian symbols on a silver medallion issued in 315, "mint supervisors thereafter felt free to use Christian signs as control marks or decorative embellishments on imperial coinage...In doing so, they were reflecting the emperor's veneration of Christian signs and his practice of employing them on his war helmet and military standards." It is not so important what imagery Constantine used; but rather, it is more important what imagery he did not use. A few scholars believe that the coinage of the time only reflected the dead weight of traditional Roman belief, but the coin motifs actually had changed quite a bit. By 324, Constantine was the sole ruler of the Roman Empire and: "he did all this without attributing his success in any way to correct religio toward the ancient gods. It was in this pointed absence of piety toward the gods, as the traditional guardians of the empire, that his subjects came to realize that their emperor was a Christian."
Constantinopolis Commemorative
A.D. 336
16mm 2.3gm
Obv. CONSTAN-TINOPOLIS laureate, helmeted, wearing imperial mantle, holding scepter.
Rev. Victory stg. on prow, holding long scepter in r. hand, and resting l. hand on shield.
Chi-Rho in left field, in ex. SCONST
RIC VII Arles 401
