Tetrarchic folles

 

The 70’s and 80’s of the third century saw a vast production of so-called ‘barbarous radiates’, coins imitating antoniniani of predominantly Claudius II and the Gallic emperors. This was the last ‘epidemic’* wave of irregular minting until the reign of Constantine. The period in between only saw sudden bursts of localized imitative minting. Barbarous imitations of coins of the first tetrarchy are very rare. Most examples have prototypes of the London mint. Below are four coins that were part of the Vogelaar collection of Roman Britain. Note that weight and module of these coins is the same as their prototypes, which are coins of London’s unmarked class II (dated c. 300).

 

10.31g/28mm

 

Illustrated above is an imitation of a follis of London’s Class IIa (RIC 9). It faithfully copies the style and legend of the prototype in a distinctive barbarous style.

 

10.49g/26mm and 9.00g/27.5mm

 

The two coins above imitate coins of Galerius Caesar (Class IIa, RIC 15). Like the previous coin of Maximian, these coins copy the design and legend of the prototype very well. In fact, the second coin was not recognized as an imitation by Vogelaar. I would argue that the style of the portrait, the strange shape of the Genius’ body and the lettering of the legends (note the M’s which are engraved as N’s) indicate its irregularity, but someone else might take a different view.

 

9.19g/26mm

 

This coin has a clear portrait and legend of Constantius I Caesar. It also imitates the style of the prototype (Class IIb, RIC 22) remarkably well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Bastien’s terminology in his important 1985 article in Museum Notes 30, ‘Imitations of Roman Bronze Coins, AD 318-363’.