Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Centenionalis - Vetranio HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS, Siscia
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
|---|---|
| Year | 350 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | D N VETRA-NIO P F AVG |
| Reverse description | Vetranio standing facing, helmeted and in military dress, holding a Chi-Rho (Christogram) standard — the labarum — in his left hand and a spear or sceptre in his right, which crosses that of a female figure of Victory standing to the right. Victory, draped and winged, extends a wreath or palm toward the emperor in a gesture of acclamation. Both figures stand on a ground line. The exergue bears the mint mark •ASIS• (Siscia, first officina). The encircling legend HOC SIG-NO VICTOR ERIS (By this sign thou shalt be victor) runs around the upper field, within a beaded border. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Vetranio's reign lasted roughly ten months in 350 AD, making this issue among the more historically peculiar of the late empire. He was proclaimed emperor by his own troops at Sirmium — possibly with the quiet encouragement of Constantina, daughter of Constantine I, who needed a loyalist buffer against the usurper Magnentius. Whether Vetranio was a genuine rival or a deliberate placeholder remains debated. He abdicated in December 350 after Constantius II confronted him at Naissus, reportedly talked down without bloodshed in a public address.
The Siscia mint was well within his controlled territory during his brief rule, which accounts for the relative accessibility of this type compared to the extreme rarity one might expect from so short a reign.