Ex Biaggi de Blasys Collection

CNG 106, Lot: 812. Estimate $20000. Sold for $21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine I. AD 307/310-337. AV Solidus (17mm, 4.43 g, 6h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 312-313. CONSTAN TINVS P F AVG, laureate head right / FELICITAS REI PVBLICAE, Constantine seated left on curule chair set on high ornamented daïs; behind, two soldiers, each holding spear; to left at ground level, three figures kneeling right in supplication with hands raised; PTR. RIC VI 810; Calicó –; Depeyrot 17/2; Biaggi 1968 (this coin). EF, toned, some light scratches in fields. Very rare.

Ex Triton XIX (4 January 2016), lot 616; Leo Biaggi de Blasys Collection, 1968; A. Hess Lucerne (9 May 1951), lot 277.

There has been a bit of a debate over the date of this coin with its unusual, for the period, reverse type. C.H.V. Sutherland, the author of volume VI of RIC, suggests it was struck in 310 or 311 to celebrate Constantine’s victories over the Alemanni and the Franks. Pierre Bastien connected it to no specific donative, while Georges Depeyrot assigns it to 312-313, presumably in honor of Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine was now the sole ruler of the West, and had purportedly cordial relations with Licinius I, who would emerge victorious in his struggle with Maximinus I and rule the East.