One of my postings in Scraps is an outline called The Constantine Donative. It describes a story idea about a coin proving that the first "Christian" emeperor willed his empire to the Church, a lie put about by some clergy in the Dark Ages. While no such coin exists, ordinary bronze coins by Constantine are as common as lice on a hair-shirted medieval Christian penitent. The coins shown are those from my collection. Once I understoof their plac in the order of things, I stopped buying Constantine bronzes and saved my money for more interesting things. But they remain a very good starting point for a novice collector. Most of these cost me as little as five and ten dollars. Only the largish coin at far left cost me anything substantial -- $60 -- but it was a rare type, minted in London, and in very good shape. The coins are grouped according to the type of reverse image. At the far right is a posthumous issue, showing Constantine veiled after death. On the reverse is a representation of his soul flying from a chariot toward heaven. None of these are overtly Christian images. In fact, Constantine was surprisingly ambiguous abouit his conversion, taking care to describe it in terms that were acceptable to worshipers of Mithras and Sol Invictus, popular gods among his soldiers. It is known that Constantine did not receive baptism until he was on his death bed. Apologists point out that this was common among Christians of the time, who were afraid of earlier baptism. They believed that if they reverted to their sinful ways after baptism there was no second chance. Modern believers have it much easier. They can screw up as often as they want and just be forgiven their sins after confession or prayer. On the balance, though, it seems Constantine did become a genuine Christian during his rule. He loved convening ecumenical meetings in which he listened raptly to the bishops arguing their positions. This many angels dance on the head of a pin. No, that many dance on the head of a pin. Etc. Then he would put his two cents worth in, and expect everyone to agree. As it happens, Constantine favoured a flavour of Christianity that was later to be denounced as a heresy.

We call the largish coin at the far left an AE 2. The others are likely all AE 3's, except the smallest one which may be an AE 3/4. We don't know what the late Romans called them. After a couple of monetary reforms in the late 3rd. century, and Constantines's own reform of the early 4th. the old asses, sestertii, denarii and antoninianii were gone. In there place were a range of bronze coins, ranging from one we call a follis and might be thought of as an AE 1. The other's seem to fall within certain ranges of size that we believe represent lesser values. What their actual value is, we don't know any more than we know their actual names. Even the name follis (bag) comes from the habit late Latin documents have of referring to so many bags of bronze coins for this expense, or for that. 4th. century coins also included a range of silver argentii, siliqua, and tremises (I think). These are not common and tend to be expensive. The small number of the more common siliqua I have are in bad shape, accordingly. I simply can't afford better. There were also new gold coins. The old aureus had been replaced by the smaller, lighter solidus (a nickname that meant, "the real thing"). At first struck 60 to the Roman pound, it was in a still later age struck 72 to the pound. Then in 498, a little more than 20 years after the fall of the Western empire, an Eastern emperor reformed the coinage all over again. So different were the new denominations that we conventionally mark the beginning of the Byzantine empire with it.