Intriguing Issue

223, Lot: 487. Estimate $200. Sold for $470. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Helena. As nobilissima femina, AD 313(?)-324. Æ Follis (20mm, 2.90 g, 12h). Thessalonica mint. Struck AD 318-319. Draped bust right / Star of eight rays within laurel wreath. RIC VII 51; LRBC 824. Good VF, green patina, a little smoothed.

This scarce issue, minted only at Thessalonica for a short duration, is unusual in that it names Helena as nobilissima femina, thus dating prior to her accession as Augusta (a similar issue of Thessalonica was also minted in the name of Fausta). The marked difference in hairstyle between this coin and later issues as Augusta has led some to the unlikely conclusion that this issue was minted not for Constantine’s mother, but rather for Helena, wife of Crispus, who may have been residing in Thessalonica with Crispus as the latter was preparing for battle with Licinius (see Jan Willem Drijvers, Helena Augusta: The Mother of Constantine the Great and the Legend of Her Finding of the True Cross, p. 40, and note 8, for a summation and bibliography of the debate).