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ROME ( ANCIENT)

RISE & FALL of the ROMAN EMPIRE COIN COLLECTION
TWO VOLUMES - 20 DIFFERENT COINS

For a glimpse of inflation in Roman times from say the years 100 - 300, one has only
to look at the coins; most evident are the silver pieces.

The Roman Emperors where interested in stretching their money, so they devised
many ingenious methods to debase and make their money cheaper. Silver coins
|went through a series of devaluation stages, such as; reducing the size of the
coins, shrinking the silver content while increasing the alloys etc. It got so bad,
that by the year 225 bronze coins were merely washed with a scant coating of silver.

Here's a selection of just this type of ' waning silver ' coins with many odd pieces.

Aurelian, born in the year 215, became Roman emperor on the death of Claudius II
Gothicus in 270. Coming from a modest family, he rose through the ranks to be
appointed commander in chief of the Roman - Balkan army.

During his brief reign Aurelian managed to reclaim large portions of imperial territory
and thus merited the title Restorer of the World, which he used on his coinage. He
not only recovered Syria from Palmyra in 272, capturing its queen ( Zenobia ), but
also reclaimed several western provinces from the rival emperors of the independent
Empire. Aurelian also began construction of the wall around Rome, reformed the
coinage, and installed the Syrian god Sol Invictus ( Invincible Sun )
as the unifying deity of the restored empire.

Although Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, commemorated on
December 25, the church did not observe this festival until the 4th century.
The date was chosen to counter the pagan festivities connected with the winter
solstice. This date ( 25 December ) was established by Aurelian, as the feast
of the Invincible Sun in the year 274.

Constantius and his sons dominated the Roman world for over half a Century. Constantius ( Chlorus ), deemed by the Emperor Diocletian to succeed as " Augustus of the Western Empire ".

Over the next 18 years, he survived many court intrigues and political strife to ultimately emerge as the Emperor of the entire Roman World, which was most of the known world at the time, stretching from modern day Britain to the Middle-East.

One of the great incidents of his life was a vision of the sign of Christ and the words " by this sign shall you conquer ". Constantius decreed that his soldiers put this sign on their shields. He also granted tolerance to Christians in the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan in 313 guaranteeing freedom of worship to all persons, legal rights to Christians, and the return of property confiscated from Christians in the past.

After conquering his last rival, Licinius I, Constantius built his new capital in Byzantium and dedicated the city in the year 330. The city that bore his name ( Constantinopolis or Nova Roma = New Rome ), served as the eastern bastion of Christendom for over a 1,000 years.

Several 'commemorative reverse' coins are featured here:

1 - Edict of Milan of 313, all in very nice condition.

2 - With wording "GLORIA EXERCITUS", Glory to the Army. Showing two soldiers standing with imperial banners, bearing the sign of Christ. All are in clean, readable condition.

3 - Nova Roma, later to be known as Constantinopolis ( City of Constantine ), all in fine to very fine condition, showing 'Victory' with a shield.

Anti - semitism, has been around for thousands of years, but there was one
Roman Emperor, who lived more than 1600 years ago who was in fact
pro - Jewish. Amazingly he was the nephew of the first Christian Emperor,
Constantine the Great. Flavius Claudius Julianus, called Julian the Apostate,
was born in 332 and died June 26, 363, he was the last pagan Roman emperor.

Following the execution of his half brother Gallus in 354, Julian was
unexpectedly appointed Caesar in his place the following year.
He remained on good terms with the emperor Constantius II until 360,
when he refused to supply troops for the war against the Persians
and subsequently demanded an equal share in the government.
Only the death of Constantius in 361 prevented another civil war.
Succeeding Constantius as emperor, Julian attempted to rescind privileges the
Christian church had enjoyed under his predecessors and to rebuild the
destroyed Jewish temple, razed by Titus in the year 70.

The Roman Emperors, starting in about the middle of the third century, began to
imprint their coins with mint marks. This was of great importance as they could track
which of the mintmasters were in fact cheating them on the amount of metal being
placed in the various coins. Often a mintmaster would dilute the metal mix with some
cheaper variety and in fact pocket the rest.

The mint mark on each coin, for the most part, showed several things; firstly the
name of the City in which the mint was located, secondly the fact that it was legal
tender money ( often by the use of the letter "P" for Pecunia, or "M" for Moneta
both meaning money in Latin ) and lastly a letter code for the actual mint in that
city that produced the money. So, for example, a mintmark like " SISPS "
would indicate that in the town of Siscia ( SIS ) money was produced ( P ) at the secunda mint house ( S ).

This select group was minted in " SISCIA ", Sisak in modern day Croatia,
the sight of an ancient Roman mint & treasury .