As I explain in more detail in my A Handbook of late
Roman Bronze Coin
Types 324-395 (
Spink, 2021), you have to look at both this
scarce AE4 and the very similar but much rarer
AE3. The latter has a clear consular
bust. Both are believed to be
contemporary.
LRBC and
RIC both actually place this coinage as
part of
Theodosius' second consulship of 388, while the Dunbarton Oaks study assigns it to
Arcadius' first consulship in 385. (See
RIC IX p166 and p186-187;
LRBC p.43 and 82 [1978 hardcover edition]; and DO page 106 and 108.)
However, as I lay out in my book, it makes much more sense given the politics of the time for a coin struck for all three individuals to be for
VII's consulship of 387 than for
Arcadius'. In addition, an updated study of the
mint marks shows that the mark in
Thessalonica was definitely changed to TESA by August 388, but also that some other issues with TESA, not TES, need to be fitted in before then. This also implies 387 not 388 thus likely eliminating
Theodosius' consulship.
SC