RIC VII, NICOMEDIA 164, CONSTANTINE I, Æ TRIAL PIECE

OBVERSE	CONSTANT-INVSAVG [CONSTANTINVS AVG]; head r., with plain diadem, looking upwards.
REVERSE	[no legend]; emperor stg. facing, head l., in quadriga, raising r. hand, eagle-tipped sceptre in l. hand.
NOT IN RIC	Æ TRIAL PIECE. Trial piece of AV medallion. Bruun questioned the presence of eagle on sceptre but he had known only one example of this medallion and in rather bad shape, due to mounting. See footnote 164 on p. 627: "Gnecchi (...) describes the emperor on the rev. "con aquila legionaria". The existence of the eagle is extremely uncertain as the coin has been mounted, and remains of the mounting confuse the design. It seems to the writer that the emperor holds a plain sceptre and not an eagle-tipped one. In point of style this coin is quite different from the similar coins of Constantinople and the obv. portrait is clearly reminiscent of the heads of GLORIA ROMANORVM and GLORIA CONSTANTINI AVG. The bust is obviously later than the corresponding vicennial ones. The absence of the m.m. is a mystery but could possilily be interpreted in the light of the Constantinopolitan model (?). Portraiture, diadem, and absence of m.m. rank this piece as the earliest of this period of coinage; on the other hand the imagery points to a largitio, conceivably in connexion with the celebrations of 330". See also: NICOMEDIA 164, CONSTANTIUS I, Æ TRIAL PIECE

NOTES

Weight 8.37 g. Sold on Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG auction in January 2009 for $3,500.