The mint was opened at Amiens during the revolt of Magnentius (350 - 353) and struck for Magnentius and Decentius. It remained open briefly after Magnentius was defeated, striking for Constantius II and Constantius Gallus. Dates of operation: 350 - 353 A.D. Mintmarks: AMB, AMBI.
AMBIANVM (Amiens, France - 49°54'N, 2°18'E) is the modern city of Amiens (1999 population: 135,000) in northern France on the Somme River. The original name of the town was Samarobriva, which is Celtic for "bridge over the Samara" (bridge over the Somme). It was the principal town of the tribe of the Ambiani. About the time of the birth of Christ a Roman town was built on the south bank of the river at the intersection of four roads. A town wall was built following a German incursion in 256 and sometime thereafter the name was changed to Civitas Ambianorum or Ambiani. The town was originally in the province of Gallia Belgica, but after the provincial reorganization by Diocletian in 294 the town was in Belgica Secunda. It gained some prominence when Magnentius, who was born there in 303, usurped the throne in 350 and established a mint there, striking for himself and his brother Decentius, whom he proclaimed Caesar. When they were overthrown by Constantius II in 353 he and his Caesar, Constantius Gallus, continued to strike at the mint for perhaps a year before it was finally closed. Ambianum eventually fell to the Franks in the fifth century and became part of their kingdom, from which the name of modern France comes. Almost nothing but foundations remains of the Roman city today.