Antoninianus - Diocletianus CONSERVAT AVG, Sol

Diocletian's early antoniniani, struck before the Edict on Coinage of 294 AD restructured the entire Roman monetary system, belong to a period of deliberate stabilization after decades of the Crisis of the Third Century had gutted imperial finances. The CONSERVAT AVG type invoking Sol reflects Diocletian's calculated promotion of solar theology as a unifying ideological tool — the same instinct that later drove his tetrarchic colleagues to adopt divine patron relationships with Jupiter and Hercules. RIC V.2 #206F places this among the Lugdunum issues, a mint Diocletian relied on heavily to supply the western provinces while consolidating control after defeating Carinus at the Battle of the Margus in 285.