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In 330 AD, Constantine the Great celebrated a gargantuan milestone: the dedication of his new Eastern imperial capital, Constantinople. Building this magnificent city and luring the Roman elite to relocate required enormous wealth, logistical mastery, and the immediate establishment of the Empire's largest mint. To broadcast his new world order, Constantine executed a numismatic overhaul unparalleled in Roman history. He abruptly halted the production of all existing bronze currency across the Empire, replacing it with a massive, strictly controlled propaganda campaign designed to visually enforce the absolute equality of his two capitals.
This unprecedented campaign materialized as a carefully paired series of commemorative coins that stunned the public by completely omitting the Emperor's portrait. Instead, production was split exactly in half between two distinct types representing the divine personifications of the cities. The VRBS ROMA issue featured Roma on one side and the ancient she-wolf on the other to reassure the West of its enduring mythological legacy, while the Constantinopolis issues featured Tyche/Constantinopolis on one side and a winged Victory on a ship's prow on the other to celebrate the triumph that secured Constantine's absolute power. Both of these standard city commemorative issues were struck at all the Empire's mints, using the same basic design; Constantine wanted everyone across the Empire to know that his new Eastern capital was the absolute equal to the ancient heart of Rome, and that both cities were fully united under his unconquered rule.
In addition to the standard city commemorative issues that were struck throughout the realm, the grand inauguration of Constantinopolis demanded a direct, celebratory form of numismatic spectacle. To meet this need, the Constantinople mint also produced a series of diminutive, anepigraphic (legend-lacking) silver medalettes. Weighing roughly one gram and measuring a mere 10 to 12 millimeters in diameter, some modern studies classify these specific fractions as third-siliquae (NGC Ancients tentatively categorizes this coin as a silver One Scripulum). However, they were never intended for normal commerce; they were specifically designed as
missilia — inaugural largesse intended to be physically thrown into the cheering crowds during the festivities.
Because these coins were so incredibly small and meant to be snatched up by the general public in a frenzy of celebration, they lacked the physical space for complex, winding obverse legends. Instead, Constantine's celators had to rely entirely on striking visual cues. The obverse of this specific issue (classified today as Bendall Type 4) features a beautifully engraved, draped bust.
Without an identifying inscription, this portrait has caused centuries of scholarly confusion. Nineteenth century numismatists speculated that the female figure might be Constantine's wife, Empress Fausta or even the young emperor Constantine II. Other proposed attributions include Constantine's mother, Helena, or his step mother, Theodora (these are the two imperial woman tentatively identified as represented on this coin by NGC Ancients). Other, modern analyses have concluded that the female figure depicted here is not an historical person at all; she is Tyche, or a divine personification of Constantinopolis. This analysis hinges on details in the female figure's intricate headpiece. She wears an elaborate pearl diadem featuring a frontal medallion or gem, flanked by a semicircular, pearled extension. This specific, highly decorative diadem is utterly unique to the celebration issues of 330 AD and is never seen on standard imperial portraits of Constantine's family members. However, a reasonable counter-argument would be the celator (and the Roman people) would expect that Helena (or Theodora) lived on in the afterlife (by either pagan or Christian calculus). So, it is not unreasonable that the celetor would array Helen (or Theodora) in trappings befitting a goddess.
We may never uncover the true identify of the diademed female figure on this coin; the obverse design lacks an epithet and is necessarily minimalist due to the constraint of the small flan. The reverse of the coin is equally minimalist, featuring nothing more than a large, solitary letter K. This is the Greek letter kappa, signifying the Greek spelling of Constantinopolis.
True to Constantine's obsession with harmonious, Empire-wide propaganda, this Constantinopolis "K" medalette was not an isolated issue. It was struck in equal numbers alongside a perfectly paired sister coin that featured the personification of Roma on the obverse and a large P on the reverse (the Greek letter rho, representing Rome).
The purely ceremonial nature of these paired coins is beautifully confirmed by modern archaeological data. In recent years, a concentrated deposit of these silver fractions was discovered near Sirmium, completely devoid of any standard imperial silver coinage. This distinct separation strongly suggests that such coins did not circulate alongside regular money. Instead, they functioned as miniature, precious-metal echoes of the massive VRBS ROMA and Constantinopolis city commemorative coins. Thrown directly into the hands of the public from imperial purses, they served as a tangible, glittering promise from the ultimate master influencer: the old and new capitals were perfectly equal, perfectly balanced, and united under Constantine's eternal rule.
Additional Reading: S Bendall, 2002, "Some comments on the anonymous silver coinage of the fourth to sixth centuries A.D.,"
Revue Numismatique, 2002: 6(158):139-159.
Coin Details: ROMAN EMPIRE, Constantinian, Circa 330, Constantinople, Third Siliqua(?) (AR One-Scripulum?) (Silver Medalette?) (1.17 g, 12 mm), NGC Grade: AU: Pending, 5/5: Pending, 2/5: Pearl-diademed and draped female bust right, Reverse: Large K, Reference: Bendall, Anonymous, Type 4.
Image: NGC Photo Vision Plus.