Rare Constantine MARTI CONSERVATORI, Rome mint

[Per D]

A couple of years ago, rick2 posted an unrecorded Constantine MARTI CONSERVATORI follis belonging to the RX-F issue of the Rome mint (RIC lists only Sol types for this issue).

I’ve found another specimen, also from officina P (as one would expect), but struck from different dies and with a different legend break: MARTI CON-S-ERVATORI. (PRD 20 mm)

As this is such a rare type, I thought the handful of people interested in these things would appreciate a scan of the coin.

[curtislclay]

Nice acquisition!

Rick2's specimen can also be seen in Lech Stepniewski's NOT in RIC, which is hosted by Forvm.

That's p. 299 in RIC VII, by the way.

[Vincent]

 :Hope you sent Lars Ramskold a PM to alert him of this one. That is why I like LRB issues,  still plenty of discoveries and surprises.
Thanks for the post.

[Per D]

Curtis and Vincent,

Thank you both for your comments. I've sent an email to Lars Ramsköld with a link to this post, so let's wait and see if he has some information to add.

/Per D

[romeman]

Many thanks Per for posting this and for notifying me. I have not seen any other examples than these two. I guess they might indicate that the MARTI reverse was initially continued into the RX/F issue but quickly discontinued. So these two examples would be the last of the type. Maybe Constantine was hoping for peace and thought he would no longer need the support of Mars? There is a rare type, MARTI PACIFERO, in the preceding issue (two specimens known to me), and also a PAX PERPETVA AVGG NN in that issue (known from a single example). In the same issue we have, of course, also the LIBERATOR ORBIS, so Constantine seems to have been full of confidence. Little did he know about the future ...

All of these types go into my database, covering the mints of Rome and Constantinople (under the reign of Constantine). To be published.

On a somewhat related note, I just uploaded my upcoming presentation in Taormina next month, on Constantine's Festival of Isis tesserae (they are not coins). It can be downloaded from Academia.com in case anyone is interested.

Thanks again. Keep looking, and more great discoveries will be made!

Lars

[SC]

Thanks for uploading your deck on the tesserae Lars, and for posting this nice example Per.

Looks indeed like this extends Mars a bit later on Constantine's coinage. 

By the way, what are yours theories on the meaning of R X - F Lars?

Shawn

[Vincent]

Yes, the link to his upcoming talk regarding these special festive issues is very well done with a superb die analysis and extensive listing of all known specimens.
Other articles/talks are worth reading.
Thank you Dr. Ramskold for your comment.