Constans AE Nummus Cyzicus AD 337-340

Obverse: DN CONSTA-NS PF AVG, laurate bust right

Reverse: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers, standing, facing one another, each with inverted spear in outer hand, inner hand resting on grounded shield, one standard between

No Fieldmarks/Officina

Mintmark SMKΔx

RIC VIII Cyzicus 28

**A VERY RARE MINTMARK OFFICINA TYPE**

Although the reverse type is not rare in the least, the officina at the end of the mintmark makes this issue quite rare; RIC VIII lists this type as scarce, however the vast majority of RIC rarity ratings are severely out of date, thus some coins rated R5 are now common and vice versa; the symbol at the end of the mintmark is described by RIC and other references as a small ‘x’, which makes it quite easy to mistake this issue as being minted in Alexandria or Antioch, but is indeed simply an odd ‘quirk’ from the mint of Cyzicus; the portrait of Constans is quite good and features one of the last ‘laureate’ busts before we see all portraits turn permanently to pearl and rosette diadems; Nummus-Bible and OCRE list a combined total of less than 25 currently known examples, with auction archives/ACSearch adding ZERO additional

Additionally, Nummus-Bible seemingly states that this particular type with its odd mintmark, was issued ONLY in April of AD 340, but I cannot verify this detail.