John Kent, author of RIC VIII on the coins of the family of Constantine, thinks that very few coins were issued 340 - 348, that is, from the death of Constantine II to the FEL TEMP REPARATIO reform of 348. The most common type in the west is next.

Constans (Caesar 333 - 337. Augustus 337 - 350)
  AE16. 12:00. 1.22 grams.
Official issue.
CONSTAN - S PF AVG
    /VICTORIAE DD AVGG Q NN, two Victories, each holding a wreath and palm
    /palm branch vertical between them, GSIS in exergue
RIC Siscia 195, page 363, "AD 347-348".
This type was issued from all western mints to as far east as Thessalonica.
This reverse was issued for Constans and Constantius II, but is more common for Constans, who was the western emperor. Large hoards of coins from the east demonstate that imitations were far less common in the east. However, this type was imitated in Britain. Its imitations are scarce, possibly because there was little time between its issuance and the major FEL TEMP REPARATIO coin reform which produced its own flood of imitations.

  AE13.  5:00
Reasonably bold imitation is crude style.
This imitation and the next are cruder than the two illustrated examples in Bastien, ANSMN 30 (1985) numbers 25 and 26.

  AE13-12. 12:00.
Thin and weakly struck imitation.
............ S ...AVG
    /two Victories, star between
    /in exergue: TRP (clearer on the coin than the scan)
Prototype:  RIC Trier 180-211, p. 151-2.
Bought in Cambridge, 1996.

One Victory, two wreaths:
    AE15.  6:00.  1.54 grams
Nearly official style prototype. Only a few features determine this to be an imitation.
CONSTA-S PF NO C, diademed head right. Note the obverse is missing the "N" of CONSTANS.
    /VICTOR - IA AVGG, Victory standing front, holding wreath in each hand
    /in exergue, * IISIS *
Prototype:  RIC Siscia 175 of AD 347, "16-17 mm, 1.67 grams"
From a dealer in Spain.

Continue with FEL TEMP REPARATIO imitations.
Return to the first page on imitations of 330-340.

Return to the main page on Roman imitations.