Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > Roman Coins Discussion Forum

A thread for scarce and/or interesting GLORIA EXERCITVS soldiers & standards.

(1/19) > >>

seth:
This is a scarcer issue of the common soldiers & standards type:

OBV: CONSTANS IVN NOB C; laureate, draped, cuirassed bust in paludamentum r.
REV: GLOR – IA EXERC – ITVS; 2 soldiers with 2 standards in between them.
EXE: SMHB* Heraclea mint.
REF: RIC VII Heraclea 139, rated R5
333-335AD.

It's an interesting early emssion for Constans at Heraclea with the IVN titulature which should've been used for Constantine II. The pictures are the seller's.

rick2:
i would not pay any attention to the rarity listed in ric 7
some issues listed as C or S in the ric 6 are actually much much scarcer than a lot of the issues rated r3 r4 or r5 in the ric 7

curtislclay:
However this is a rather interesting and important rarity: Constans was called IVN only at Heraclea, and only on this one reduced follis, known to Bruun in one spec. in BM (officina A) and four in Vienna (off. B, Γ, and two with mintmark off flan).

So Cohen 70 valued this coin at 6 francs, citing Vienna, compared to just "C", meaning less than one franc, for standard GLORIA EXERCITVS types.

Vincent:
Since we are on this subject, I would like to bring to the table another odd title from this mint of Heraclea. It is attributed to Constantine II and the obverse legend read:
CONSTANT NVS VM AVG with the same reverse but only one standard LRBC 947.
I for one have 2 examples of this equally scarce variant and actually believe it was minted for Constantine the Great as a posthumous issue under Constans, like his Aquileia issue. Constans was against these death commemorative and this may have been a concession to his eldest brother.
The VM may stand for  (VN MR or "Reverend Memory).
The normal type may have helped make these more acceptable in Constan's mind.

Wildwinds| Link

a plate from the Wildwinds website.

It also has been suggested that the VM title may mean "Victor Maximus", a title Constantine II was awarded and also inscribed on his Rome issues with VIC.

Regardless, a very unusual issue for this very common type

seth:
Although rated a measly S, I couldn't find another one online, which gets me to think how many of these rare varieties are out there but being the fact that gloria is such a mundane type they fly under the radar.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page