Constantine II 337 - 340 A.D.
Coin Description | Constantine II , AE 18 mm, Grade??, The coin is well centered but the flan is a bit oval causing the lower left part of the obverse legend to be missing especially the upper right of the reverse is plagued by extreme heavy encrustations which I'm not able to remove, VM 32 (but VOT V instead of VOT X), RBC 300, RIC VII Arles 232. |
Obverse | The portrait is of Constantine II a laureate and cuirassed bust facing right. The legend reads CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C meaning: CONSTANTINVS (his name) IVN (junior/the younger to distinguish him from his father with the same name) NOB C (Nobilitas Caesar / Royal Heir to the throne). |
Reverse | The reverse shows a wreath with the letters VOT
V which translates
as: Votis V which means vows for a successful reign of 5 years. This derives
from the Roman custom of offering vows of a certain sacrifice to the Gods
in return for the granting of some favor or wish. During his reign, the
emperor would offer vows to safeguard the people and the state for a certain
period. When the end of this period was reached (in this case 5 years his
quinqennalia) he would make the sacrifices in fulfillment of those vows.
(note that they only paid on delivery
of the goods ) The legend surrounding the wreath reads: CAESARVM NOSTRORVM meaning: the prince / heir-apperent (Caesar) of our people (Nostrorum). The general consensus on the dot between the VOT and V is that these were centering marks used in some workshops and do not constitute a new type, this quoted from Helvetica's RIC spreadsheets which can be found here. |
Mint | The exergue reads QA which stands for the fourth officina Q (Quarta) of the Arles mint , minted 320-321 A.D. |
The Entire Story | The entire story of this coin would read: Constantinvs the heir to the throne who makes his five year vows. It clearly puts Constantine II forth as heir to the throne on both the obverse and the reverse (Nobilitas Caesar and Caesarum Nostrorum. |