Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 771. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $14000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine I. AD 307/310-337. AV Nine Siliquae - 1 1/2 Scripulum (1.57 g, 6h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 321. CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right / GAVDIVM ROMANORVM, FRANCIA in exergue, Francia seated left on ground in attitude of mourning; to right, trophy comprised of carnyx, spears, and shields; spear and shield on ground at base of trophy. RIC VII 365; Depeyrot 28/7; Vagi 3109. EF, lustrous, a couple tiny contact marks. Extremely rare, only the 4th known example.

According to the panegyrist Nazarius (Pan. Lat. 4, delivered in AD 321), Constantine’s son and heir, Crispus, aged 13 or 15 at the time, successfully undertook a campaign in AD 320 against the Franks and the Alemanni. Crispus’ victory signaled the vitality of the Constantinian house and a renewal of Roman military action against the western barbarians following the conclusion of the Civil War with Maxentius. No doubt multiples such as this coin were presented to officers who had assisted in the campaign. Such a major victory was fortuitous, since that same year, Licinius, Constantine’s chief rival, broke the treaty the treaty established three years earlier. The end of this renewal of civil war would finally see Constantine as the sole master of the Roman Empire. For Crispus, however, his succession to the throne would be unfulfilled. In AD 326 he was implicated in a plot against the emperor and killed.