Ancient and Medieval Coins Canada

Auction 1  –  1 December 2018

Ancient and Medieval Coins Canada, Auction 1

Ancient and Medieval Coins

Sa, 01.12.2018, from 6:00 PM CET
The auction is closed.

Description

★ Earliest London issue ★

LONDON TETRARCHIC: Diocletian (284-305), AE follis, issued c. 296 (Cloke & Toone's dating, 297 according to RIC). London, 9.06g, 28mm. Very rare (only 1 example on acsearch).
Obv: IMP C DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG; Laureate, truncated, bare neck bust right.
Rev: GENIO POPV–LI ROMANI; Genius standing, facing left, head surmounted by a modius, naked except for chlamys over left shoulder, holding patera in right hand and cornucopia in left arm; LON in ex.
RIC VI 1a (London); CT (Cloke & Toone) 1.01.001 (R)
From the James Pickering Romano-Britannic Collection (please see lot 122 for details). Pickering remarks that this coin is “very rare - especially in this condition.”

Upon reincorporating Britain into the empire, Constantius I produced a very small issue from the London mint in the name of all four tetrarchs. This initial issue used the “LON" mintmark which was for some reason dropped immediately after. Influence of the Lugdunese engravers is clearly evident, except in the compact London style lettering. A similarity to portraits of Allectus is often noted as well, perhaps indicating the continued involvement of Carausian revolt mint workers.

As the first Imperial issues of the London mint, these rare coins are greatly sought after. cf. CNG 64, 24.09.2003, Lot 1200 (realized $750); for Maximianus (RIC 3) Spink 8006, 26.03.2008, lot 1172 (realized 550 GBP). No sales in the last ten years are recorded in acsearch, but an inferior example sold earlier this year for 300 GBP (Dix Noonan Webb Auction 147, 12.06.2018, lot 1314).

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Bidding

Price realized 675 CAD 5 bids
Starting price 300 CAD
The auction is closed.
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