Some rare and unpublished roman coins of the London Mint in the Paris collection - article ; n°154 ; vol.6, pg 183-193

Lord Stewartby

Description

Revue numismatique - Année 1999 - Volume 6 - Numéro 154 - Pages 183-193
Summary. - The Cabinet des Médailles contains an important collection of Roman coins of the London mint from the Tetrarchic and early Constantinian periods. Twenty- nine of them are here described and illustrated, including many rare and unpublished varieties. № 5 is the only known London coin of Diocletian with a full consular portrait. Other Tetrarchic coins have unusual obverse inscriptions, some of which reveal apparent errors in Roman Imperial Coinage. Among the Constantinian coins are several with rare combinations of bust and inscription. With regard to n° 19, on which Sol is shown in a quadriga on the reverse, the suggestion is made that this type relates to Constantine's fourth consulship in 315.
11 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: REVUE_NUMISMATIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lord Stewartby
Some rare and unpublished roman coins of the London Mint in
the Paris collection
In: Revue numismatique, 6e série - Tome 154, année 1999 pp. 183-193.
Abstract
Summary. - The Cabinet des Médailles contains an important collection of Roman coins of the London mint from the Tetrarchic
and early Constantinian periods. Twenty- nine of them are here described and illustrated, including many rare and unpublished
varieties. № 5 is the only known London coin of Diocletian with a full consular portrait. Other Tetrarchic coins have unusual
obverse inscriptions, some of which reveal apparent errors in Roman Imperial Coinage. Among the Constantinian coins are
several with rare combinations of bust and inscription. With regard to n° 19, on which Sol is shown in a quadriga on the reverse,
the suggestion is made that this type relates to Constantine's fourth consulship in 315.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Stewartby Lord. Some rare and unpublished roman coins of the London Mint in the Paris collection. In: Revue numismatique, 6e
série - Tome 154, année 1999 pp. 183-193.
doi : 10.3406/numi.1999.2241
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/numi_0484-8942_1999_num_6_154_2241STEWARTBY* Lord
SOME RARE AND UNPUBLISHED ROMAN
COINS OF THE LONDON MINT
IN THE PARIS COLLECTION
(PI XXXI-XXXIII)
Summary. - The Cabinet des Médailles contains an important collection of Roman
coins of the London mint from the Tetrarchic and early Constantinian periods. Twenty-
nine of them are here described and illustrated, including many rare and unpublished va
rieties. № 5 is the only known London coin of Diocletian with a full consular portrait.
Other Tetrarchic coins have unusual obverse inscriptions, some of which reveal apparent
errors in Roman Imperial Coinage. Among the Constantinian coins are several with rare
combinations of bust and inscription. With regard to n° 19, on which Sol is shown in a
quadriga on the reverse, the suggestion is made that this type relates to Constantine's
fourth consulship in 315.
Résumé. - Le Cabinet des médailles conserve une importante collection de monnaies
de l'atelier de Londres d'époques tétrarchique et constantinienne. 29 d'entre elles sont ici
décrites et illustrées qui présentent des variétés rares ou inédites. Le n° 5 est la seule pièce
connue de Londres avec un portrait pleinement consulaire de Dioclétien. D'autres monn
aies tétrarchiques ont des titulatures inhabituelles et certaines révèlent apparemment des
erreurs du RIC. Pour la période constantinienne, on observe des combinaisons rares de
bustes et de légendes. Le n° 19 qui montre Sol dans un quadrige pourrait être mis en re
lation avec le 4e consulat de Constantin en 315.
During the Tetrarchic and early Constantinian periods the coins in use
towards the north-western borders of the empire came mainly from the
mints of Trier and London. Many hoards of the period have been found
in both northern Gaul and Britain, and one of the consequences of this is
that the Cabinet des Médailles contains a very fine collection of the
London issues of this era. I am much indebted to M. Michel Amandry for
the provision of casts to illustrate this paper, and for other assistance with
its publication.
Most of the twenty-nine coins here described are of varieties either not
otherwise recorded or of which no illustration or description has been
* 2 Baldwin Crescent, London SE5 9LQ.
Revue numismatique, 1999, p. 183-193 184 LORD STEWARTBY
readily available previously. Some of the Tetrarchic coins show unusual
variants of the normal inscriptions, and others provide evidence for cor
recting errors in Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC). Many of the
Constantinian coins are notable for rare combinations of bust and ins
cription. Two items, however, deserve especial notice. № 5 is the only
known London coin of Diocletian with a full consular portrait. № 19,
showing the emperor in ornamental attire combined with Sol in a qua
driga as the reverse type, is suggested here to refer to the year of
Constantine's fourth consulship (315).
Die-axis is inverted (i.e. 180°- 190°) unless otherwise stated.
First Tetrarchy
C.H. V. Sutherland, the author of RIC volume VI, divided the London
coins of the First Tetrarchy into three groups (only the first of which car
ries a mintmark), as follows:
Group I Bust bare ; mintmark LON. RIC 1-5
IIusually cuirassed ; no mintmark 6-22
Ha Bust with small head on tall neck (6-16)
lib larger, elongated head on shorter neck (17-22)
III Large, spread bust, almost always cuirassed, in low relief 23-39
The reverse type throughout is Genio Populi Romani (normally with
the break POPV-LI).
Of the rare group I, with bare bust and LON, the following extremely
rare varieties are illustrated here:
1. Maximian, RIC 2. Imp Maximianus Pi Fe Aug (inscription 2b).
CMP 1986/25. 10.53 g.
Another example of this coin is in the British Museum, from different
dies. RIC 3, similar but reading Pius Aug (2c), is cited in RIC from the
Paris specimen (CMP 8192), which is illustrated in NC 1971, pi. 30, 3.
2. Galerius, RIC 5. Maximianus Nobil Caes (4b). CMP 8637. 11.30 g.
Other specimens of RIC 5 are in the British Museum, and in the
Mossop Collection (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) from the Market
Stainton hoard1.
Coins of group II are abundant, but there are some extremely rare va
riants of the obverse inscriptions. For Diocletian the normal reading is
Imp С Diocletianus P F Aug (RIC 6a). The bust is laureate and cuirassed,
to right.
1. Lord Stewartby, Early Tetrarchic Coins of London from the Market Stainton Finds, NC
1998, p. 89-102 (pi. 28, 22).
RN 1999, p. 183-193 ROMAN COINS FROM THE LONDON MINT 185
3. Diocletian, RIC -. Imp С Diocletianus P F I Aug. CMP 1986/26.
8.97 g.
Another coin, similar but reading P F In Aug (RIC - ), occurred in the
Troussey hoard2. These are the only London coins of Diocletian known
to me with the title In(victus).
4. Diocletian, RIC -. Imp С Diocletianus P F Ag. CMP 1986/27.
7.05 g.
No other London coin of Diocletian is recorded with Ag for Aug, a
lthough this is a frequent form on London coins of the Constantinian per
iod.
5. Diocletian, RIC -. Laureate bust left in consular robes holding
eagle-tipped sceptre (scipio). Imp С Diocletianus P F Aug. CMP 7964.
10,58 g
In publishing this coin in 1980, M. Amandry drew attention to a parall
el consular issue of Diocletian at Trier, which suggests that it belongs to
the year 299, in which held his seventh consulship3. Another
unique London consular coin of similar period is in the name of Galerius.
It came to the British Museum from the 1912 Llangarren hoard and a
lthough published by Askew was omitted from RIC4. It is probably to be
dated to the third consulship of Galerius in 300.
Early group II coins of Galerius normally read С Val Maximianus Nob
С (RIC 14b). The following variant occurs in Paris :
6. Galerius, RIC -. Bust laureate and cuirassed, to right, with carefully
modelled large head. Cal Val Maximianus Nob C. CMP 8588. 8.88 g.
A coin from the same obverse die was in the 1865 Falmouth hoard
(now in the author's collection), and a similar coin, from a different die,
was no. 1186 in the Domqueur hoard5, where it was described under
group III. However, praenomina are not used in group III6 and these
coins, which do not have the broad bust in low relief described by
Sutherland as being characteristic of group III, actually belong to the ear
liest phase of group II (described as He, for "early" II, in discussion of the
coins from Market Stainton). In He the head is usually much larger than
in Ha, and without the typical elongated neck of Ha. As in the present
2. BSFN, June 1992, p. 348 and 350.
3. M. Amandry, Un follis inédit de Dioclétien pour l'atelier de Londres, BSFN, April 1980,
p. 677-679.
4. NC 1929, p. 334-335 ; NC 1956, p. 122, n° 17 ; and NC 1998, pi. 28, 31. G. Askew, The
Coinage of Roman Britain, 1951, n° 642.
5. P. Bastien and F. Vasselle, Le trésor monétaire de Domqueur (Somme), Wetteren, 1965,
p. 81.
6. Thus, the coin of Constantius (reading FI Val Constantius Nob Q in Oxford listed as RIC 30,
under group III, belongs in my view (and Dr. Bastien's) to early group II.
RN 1999, p. 183-193 1 86 LORD STEWARTBY
case, the Ile portrait is often of fine style. These He coins were first iden
tified by Dr. Bastien as a result of his work on the Fresnoy hoard7.
The flat portrait and coarser style of group III are apparent on the fo
llowing coin :
7. Constantius, RIC -. Bust laureate and cuirassed, to right, with palu-
damentum (RIC bust D). Constantius Nob С (inscription 3d). CMP 8309.
9.76 g.
This coin is not listed in RIC. In the Ashmolean copy of RIC VI, ho
wever, Sutherland had written "where?" against his n° 38 (inscription 3c
with bust D), a variety which I too have been unable to trace. It seems
clear that 3c (D) is an error for 3d (D), the variety here illustrated, of
which several examples are recorded