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Ancient sources referencing specific coins

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Victor:
Perhaps most famous is the reference from Eusebius about Constantine's "eyes to the heavens" bust type.

    "How deeply his soul was impressed by the power of divine faith may be understood from the circumstance that he directed his likeness to be stamped on the golden coin of the empire with eyes uplifted as in the posture of prayer to God: and this money became current throughout the Roman world." Eusebius (IV.15)

Constantine I
circa 327 A.D.
20mm    2.4gm
Obv. Anepigraphic: head with rosette diademed, looking up to heavens
Rev. CONSTANTINIANA DAFNE [Constantinian Dafne] Victory seated l. on cippus, palm branch in left hand and laurel branch in right hand, looking r.; trophy at front, at the foot is a kneeling captive with head turned being spurned by Victory; E in left field.
in ex. CONS
RIC VII Constantinople   

Victor:
Julian II tried to revive paganism and the reverse of this coin symbolizes his pagan beliefs. This upset some of his Christian subjects and the people of Antioch even demonstrated against him "shouting that his coinage had a bull and that the world was overturned." (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 3.17)


Julian II
A.D. 360-363
28mm  8.1gm
DN FL C IVLIANVS P F AVG. pearl-diademed, draped, & cuirassed bust r. SECVRITAS REIPVB Bull, head facing, standing right; above, two stars.
In ex. LVGDOFFP
RIC VIII Lyons 236

 
The exergue on this coin reads LVGDunum OFFicina Prima (first workshop of Lugdunum)

 
Lugdunum (now called Lyons) was named after the Celtic sun-god, Lug or Lugh.

Victor:
Tacitus (who wrote Germania in the first century A.D.) said that the Germanic tribes, "value gold and silver for their use in commerce, and are wont to distinguish and prefer certain of our coins. They like old-fashioned coins because they have been long familiar with them-- especially those which have notched edges and are stamped with representations of two-horse chariots." (Tacitus Germania Book 5)  Tacitus also said that Germans only used coins as currency on the frontiers, while in the interior coins were treated as bullion. (Tacitus Annals 12:30)

Victor:
John of Ephesus, who lived lived circa A.D. 507- 588 and spent many years in Constantinople, wrote that the general public believed that the figure of Constantinopolis on gold coins of Justin II was actually Venus.

 

Victor:
After Constantine died in 337, his sons issued posthumous coins in honor of their father. Constantine was the last Emperor to be consecrated and deified on coins. Eusebius also wrote about one of these posthumous coins:

    "At the same time coins were struck portraying the Blessed One on the obverse in the form of one with head veiled, on the reverse like a charioteer on a quadriga, being taken up by a right hand stretched out to him from above."    Life of Constantine  IV 73

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