City Commemoratives and Gloria Exercitus
The main reason I have grouped city commemorative
issues (Urbs Roma and Constantinopolis) with Gloria Exercitus issues is that
hoards often show these groups of imitations together. These coins typically imitate
western mints, they circulated in the western provinces and they were current
along with their prototypes. The Königsforst hoard* (near Cologne), for
example, contained 3666 coins. It only has coins that predate the reform of AD
348 that initiated the Fel Temp Reparatio coinage. Of these coins, 215 were
irregular. Of the official issues, 90 per cent were struck by the three western
mints. As will be clear from the table below, the imitations showed almost
exactly the same pattern.
Just like the official issues, the prototypes of the
imitations were predominantly of the three western mints, with only 2.7% that
had Siscia mint prototypes and two single coins with Rome and Aquileia
prototypes. A comparably large proportion of the illegible imitations must also
have had western mint prototypes.
Something similar is going on with the reverse
types. Of course there were a few rarer types attested in the hoard, but the
largest part comprised Gloria Exercitus types, city commemoratives and the type
that was struck just before the hoard was buried, the Two Victories type. The
imitations show a similar pattern, with a few exceptions, as seen in this table
in which the types are ordered chronologically:
A few conclusions can be made out of this: Firstly, local
imitations have locally circulating official issues for their prototypes. By
implication, this means that imitations must be dated to approximately the same
date as their prototypes, lagging a few years behind. This is shown very nicely
in the Königsforst hoard. As seen in the table, most of the imitations were of
the one-standard Gloria Exercitus type, which was minted until 340, when the
Two Victories type was introduced. Only 14.06% of the imitations had the Two
Victories as prototype. This most recent type did account for the largest part
of the official issues, as is to be expected.
Below are a few two typical Western mint imitations
of city commemoratives and Gloria Exercitus types. Typically they are light
weight and sometimes struck on very small flans.
Left: 0.70g/11.4mm; Right 0.96g/13.2mm; Both Ex De Wit
collection
Two typical western imitations of
Urbs Roma and Constantinopolis types. The coin on the left on a tiny flan of
just over a centimeter, but they are also encountered on even smaller flans.
The coin has a Lyon mint mark and a nice retrograde S in the obverse legend.
The reverse is of a style that closely approaches official issues, but the
module wouldn’t pass it as such. The coin on the right has a more ‘crude’
design. The mint mark is off flan.
Left: 0.99g/12.6mm; Right: 0.55g/13.6mm
Two typical western imitations of a Gloria Exercitus
two standard type. This prototype was minted until 335 for Constantine and his
sons as Caesares. The type was imitated a lot in the west. They are typically
lighter of weight and struck on significantly smaller flans than their
prototypes. The mint mark on the coin on the left is off flan, the coin on the
right has a Trier mintmark. These coins usually display good lettering and
style.
Top left: 0.81g/13mm; Top right: 0.91g/11.6mm; Bottom left: 1.31g/14.6mm;
Bottom right: 1.33g/16mm
The Gloria Exercitus type with one standard was
introduced in AD 335 and continued after Constantine’s death until AD 340 by
his sons as Augusti. These were also heavily imitated in the western provinces.
Sometimes a coin can be traced more or less securely to its prototype, like the
well made coin on the bottom left. De obverse legend can be read as DN CONSTANS
PF AVG, even the legend break is taken from the prototype. The coin also has a
clear Trier mint mark. The coin next to it is also rather special. It is
virtually as struck and it has the same kind of silver wash (or at least ‘white
metal wash’) as its regular counterparts.
0.68g/9.2mm
This small coin is something of a mystery to me. It
is clear that the reverse is imitating a ‘Constantinopolis’ city commemorative
type, showing Victory holding spear and shield. The obverse, however, seems to
show a female portrait. It seems that a Helena or Fausta coin served as a
prototype for this obverse die.
1.64g/17mm
The coin above imitates a Gloria Exercitus issue,
but is not easily categorized. The style is more similar to the Laetae imitations of the Balkan area,
and the module is larger than the typical imitative coins using western mint
prototypes.
*’Ein Verwahrfund des 4. Jahrhunderts aus dem
Königsforst bei Köln’, Sonderdruck aus Bonner
Jahrbücher 184, 1984