Late Roman Bronze Coins
Coin talk => Late Roman Bronze coins => Topic started by: Victor on April 08, 2014, 07:20:42 AM
Below is a Constantine I VLPP from Siscia with a horseman on the shield, except the horseman is leaping to the left instead of the normal right. I have seen quite a few of these over the years and this is the first example I have seen like this. This is probably only something that would interest a collector of this series, but I though it was very interesting. On a side note, these coins with the leaping horseman were only issued from officina B.
The first example below is the left leaping one and the second is the normal right leaping, both are RIC 61.
Constantine I
A.D. 319
20mm 2.6gm
IMP CONSTANT-INVS AVG; high crested helmet, cuirassed, spear across r. shoulder, shield with horseman on left arm
VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP; two Victories stg., facing one another, together holding shield inscribed VOT PR on altar.
In ex. BSIS dot
RIC VII Siscia 61
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
I have checked all Constantine an Crispus' shields available (different mints and issues) in the nummus-bible-database and could not find a horseman (leaping or not) to left.
Is there any known significance to this or it is just the usual way to represent this scene?
Quote from: Genio popvli romani on April 08, 2014, 03:33:11 PM
Is there any known significance to this or it is just the usual way to represent this scene?
I don't think that there is any significance to the direction, it is just always horseman to the right.
I just got another example with the horseman leaping left.
Constantine I
A.D. 319
19x20mm 2.8gm
IMP CONSTAN-TINVS AVG; high crested helmet, cuirassed, spear across r. shoulder, shield with horseman on left arm
VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP; two Victories stg., facing one another, together holding shield inscribed VOT PR on altar.
In ex. BSIS dot
RIC VII Siscia 61
My first horseman :)
Even from the same die pair as yours!
(https://www.lateromanbronzecoinforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1287.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fa637%2Fseuk888%2Fsiscia-vlpp-horseman_zpsnbtjkzir.jpg&hash=7e5a424a98f1aa846d7cc1ab283784422f26eaff)
Quote from: seuk on May 24, 2015, 10:15:38 AM
My first horseman :)
Even from the same die pair as yours!
Congrats...I enjoy the horseman type. It's funny though, for years I actively collected these and never saw any with the left facing.
Yes strange how things turn up. I think I was the second bidder on your coin - then this one turns up in a small lot which I bought to get an imitation VLPP.