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!
Follis - Arcadius SALVS REIPVBLICAE, Cyzicus
| Issuer | Eastern Roman Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 388-392 |
| 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 | Right-facing bust of Emperor Arcadius, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed, rendered in the late antique imperial style typical of the Theodosian period. The effigy displays a beaded diadem across the forehead and paludamentum over the cuirass, with the portrait set within a beaded border. The obverse legend DN ARCADIVS PF AVG (Dominus Noster Arcadius Pius Felix Augustus) encircles the bust, partially legible due to wear and the coin's irregular flan. The facial features, though heavily worn, retain the characteristically stylized treatment common to small-module late Roman coinage struck at the Cyzicus mint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | DN ARCADIVS PF AVG |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Arcadius was elevated to co-emperor by his father Theodosius I in 383, aged just five or six, making him a reigning emperor in name only for the entirety of this issue's production. The SALVS REIPVBLICAE ("health of the state") type was introduced as part of Theodosius's monetary reforms following the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in 378, which had effectively bankrupted the eastern military apparatus and forced a wholesale restructuring of bronze coinage at reduced weights. Cyzicus, on the Propontis, was one of the most productive mints of the late fourth century and assigned the mintmark SMKB or similar officina letters.