Concordia Militum

 

The reverse type of ‘Emperor stg. facing holding two labara’ with the legend CONCORDIA MILITVM was struck in the period 348-350 AD at the three Roman mints in the Balkans: Siscia, Sirmium and Thessalonica. The type occurs most frequently for Constantius II, but only for his caesar Constantius Gallus and for Vetranio. It was imitated frequently in the Balkan region.

 

 

The coin illustrated above has a nice and legible obverse legend, identifying Constantius II as the prototype’s emperor. Note the retrograde DN at the beginning of the legend and the A’s and V’s that appear as X’s. The reverse design is clearly an imitation of a CONCORDIA MILITVM type coin. The beginning of the legend CONCOR is clearly legible, but the end is ‘blundered beyond recognition’. Also, the exergue mark is a little enigmatic. Dot-ASN does not appear on ‘regular’ coinage and does not match the mint marks of the three mints this type was struck. However, the field letters A/B occur only at Thessalonica (RIC 130), paired with mint mark ·TSA·. But as so often happens with these ‘barbarous’ imitations, there is a final twist. The bust of this RIC 130 has the letter A behind. The A is missing on this coin, and what is more, the portrait has a nice rosette diadem. All ‘regular’ CONCORDIA MILITVM coins of Constantius have pearl diademed busts.