135, Lot: 196. Estimate $75. Sold for $473. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANTIUS II. 337-361 AD. Æ Centenionalis (22mm, 5.46 g). Trier mint. Struck 352 AD. Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / Large Chi-Rho between A-W; TRS*. RIC VIII 332; LRBC 67. VF, brown patina.

From the Marc Poncin Collection.

Constantius II and a reverse type of the usurpers Magnentius and Decentius, with a tantalizingly obscure passage from the fourth-century historian, Ammianus Marcellinus. There, the historian, relating the clean-up of Magnentius' revolt, mentions the killing of a Poemenius who revolted against the usurpers in Trier and handed the city over to the legitimate emperor, Constantius II. While J.P.C. Kent (NC 1959, pp. 105-108) asserted these coins, as well as a contemporary gold issue, were struck by Poemenius in anticipation of the emperor's retaking of the city, P. Bastien (QT 1983), revisited the question. Re-analyzing the gold issue, he concluded that the bronze coins were issued only after Constantius had retaken the city, and not before. More recently, W. C. Holt (AJN 15 [2004]), while arguing with slight modifications, nevertheless agrees in genere with Kent's hypothesis. Although this coin is clearly associated with the events of the revolt in Trier, any more certain conslusion at this point remains based on how one wishes to interpret the scant evidence.