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Sale: CNG 61, Lot: 2075. Closing Date: Sep 25,
2002. CONSTANTINE I with CRISPUS and CONSTANTINE
II, as Caesars. BID Estimate $2000
CONSTANTINE I with CRISPUS and CONSTANTINE II, as
Caesars. 307-337 AD. AR Miliarense (4.69 gm).
Struck 320 AD. Sirmium mint. Bare head right /
Confronted BUSTS OF Crispus and Constantine II;
SIRM. RIC VII 14; Gnecchi pl. 29, 8; Bastien,
Donativa, pg. 76, note 11; Cohen 3. EF, surfaces
lightly porous, a few small surface
irregularities. Very rare! ($2000)
The coinage of Constantine's long reign is very
complex. He instituted several important currency
reforms, including the introduction of a new gold
coin (the solidus) and, later in the reign, the
reestablishment of coinage in pure silver
(siliqua, etc.). This rare dynastic type, struck
at the Danubian mint of Sirmium, depicts on the
reverse the emperor's two elder sons — Flavius
Julius Crispus, the issue of his marriage to
Minervina (his first wife or, perhaps, merely a
concubine); and Flavius Claudius Constantinus, the
eldest of his three sons by Flavia Maxima Fausta,
daughter of the emperor Maximianus. The head of
Crispus, who was aged about twenty-one at the time
of the issue, is depicted larger and more mature
than that of his half-brother who was only eight.
This base silver coin, which is sometimes
described as a ‘small medallion’ or a ‘multiple’,
is of an experimental denomination which preceded
the reintroduction of pure silver coinage about
325 AD. It should probably be called a miliarensis
which is the name applied to the pure silver coin
of the same weight (4.5 grams = 1/72 of a pound)
struck regularly after 325.
Copyright ｩ CNG 2002
Developed by DataArt 2002
Lot sold for $2400, plus buyers fees.
Used by permission of Classical Numismatic Group, www.cngcoins.com.