@ Heliodromus
Great representation on the
medallion!
One wonders why a special fractional was needed; this message was being broadcast loud and clear on other denominations. Presumably it was a donative.
In principle, one can assume that these pieces were personally issued by the emperor on special occasions and celebrations.
You can imagine that they were thrown from the emperor's
quadriga into the cheering crowd at the pageants organized for this purpose.
According to
Zschucke, it seems that theses coins were made on the occasion of a
Emperor visit, otherwise from the residence mints on special occasions.
That would also explain why there are comparatively many of these coins from Trier.
Constantine had ruled from there for a long time and also held many celebrations there.
But there were also expectoration coins from other emperors from other mints.
We just happened to have this topic in another
forum for a piece from
Maximianusfrom
Carthage.
If I can shiver
Zschucke for a moment.
I'll attach the translation:
The cities of
Carthage and
Rome undoubtedly belonged to it
Maximianus's sphere of influence. Its seat of government was mainly in
Mediolanum.
According to
Zschucke, it seems that the partial coinage was passed on to the court of the emperors
was bound. Means that they are in
Rome, as in this example
Carthage, on the occasion of one
Emperor visits were made and otherwise from the residence mints on special occasions
and were minted at the request of the emperor.
That would then also explain that
Lugdunum was in power during the joint government of
Diocletian and
Maximianus might have coined some parts because
Maximianus before the
Establishment of the Trier residence during
his campaigns in the
north and
westtemporarily held court in
Lugdunum.
The same could then be
applied to
Carthage, or that it he was there e.g., before the establishment
the
mint, also resided.
Certainly something strange was happening in that region. The other sign is the enormous amount of forgeries. They are sometimes very crude which suggests that some people accepted them because they had only rare opportunity to see good coins.
This applies to the innumerable imitations that were minted towards the end of the Constantinian dynasty.
It was officially tolerated
money, because of the enormous lack of material. Comparable to the officially
tolerated imitations of the Antoninianii in the 3rd century. There was no material to manufacture them
and the coins were getting smaller and smaller. The smallest one I have of it is only 6-7mm tall.
I would call it officially tolerated emergency
money.
best regards
Ralph