Constantine I, 307/310-337. Follis (Bronze, 18 mm, 2.21 g, 12 h), Antiochia, July 325 (?). Laureate head of Constantine I to right. Rev. CONSTAN/TINVS / AVG / SMANTB in four lines; above, laurel wreath. RIC 52. Very rare and exceptionally well preserved. Very minor roughness, otherwise, extremely fine.


This is by far the finest example for Constantine I (RIC 52) from officina B and it is the second rarest type of the dynastic bronzes from Antioch, after RIC 57 officina Δ. The officina distribution given by Bruun in RIC VII for the first Antiochene dynastic bronze emission includes a large number of misread officina letters. RIC 52 lists six officinae for Constantine I, but in fact, only officinae B and Є struck for him. There are 7 examples known from officina B known versus 44 from officina Є. The first emission (RIC 52-56) is presently known from 297 examples compared to 1,115 from the second emission. This is far more than the total number of dynastic bronzes from all other mints combined. The total output of the second emission may have been in the millions, for reasons we can only guess at. Furthermore, at least the second Antiochene emission was, in contrast to all other dynastic bronze emissions except the one from Trier, struck without the emperor's presence. Ramskold (in prep.) tentatively dates the first emission to the initial vicennalia in July 325 and the second emission to the end of the vicennalian year in July 326.