Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Constantine I 'the Great', as Caesar, AR Argenteus. Treveri, AD 306-307. CONSTANTINVS NOB C, laureate head to right / VIRTVS MILITVM, camp gate with four turrets and no doors; PTR in exergue. RIC VI 638; RSC 706a. 3.30g, 18mm, 6h.
Mint State; deep old cabinet tone. Very Rare.
Acquired from Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG;
Ex Collection of a Hanseatic Romanophile;
Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Auction 158, 28 September 2009, lot 786.
After the death of his father in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as Augustus by his army and the Alamannic king Chrocus, who had been taken into service under Constantius, while in northern Britain. Galerius, Augustus in the East and colleague of Constantius, declared that Constantine should be Caesar, which he accepted; thus began his inexorable rise. Securing himself in the West through the memory of his father, and his building programme in places such as Treveri where he built a new imperial palace and vast baths, Constantine was settled in his place commanding one of the largest Roman armies, stationed on the Rhine frontier.
Struck for use by mainly military recipients, throughout this period the types of the silver issues were of purely military significance, the most common being the representation of the four rulers at sacrifice before a gate in a fortified enclosure. The more simplified type of the present piece began to replace the earlier type during this period, until it became extremely common to the bronze of Constantine's reign.
Mint State; deep old cabinet tone. Very Rare.
Acquired from Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG;
Ex Collection of a Hanseatic Romanophile;
Ex Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Auction 158, 28 September 2009, lot 786.
After the death of his father in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as Augustus by his army and the Alamannic king Chrocus, who had been taken into service under Constantius, while in northern Britain. Galerius, Augustus in the East and colleague of Constantius, declared that Constantine should be Caesar, which he accepted; thus began his inexorable rise. Securing himself in the West through the memory of his father, and his building programme in places such as Treveri where he built a new imperial palace and vast baths, Constantine was settled in his place commanding one of the largest Roman armies, stationed on the Rhine frontier.
Struck for use by mainly military recipients, throughout this period the types of the silver issues were of purely military significance, the most common being the representation of the four rulers at sacrifice before a gate in a fortified enclosure. The more simplified type of the present piece began to replace the earlier type during this period, until it became extremely common to the bronze of Constantine's reign.