Nummus - Constans I FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Arelate

The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("happy times are here again") coinage was launched across the western mints in 348 AD to commemorate the 1,100th anniversary of Rome's founding — a massive, coordinated emission unprecedented in scale for the late empire. Arelate (modern Arles) was one of the primary western production centers, having been elevated to a major imperial mint by Constantine I decades earlier. Constans, who controlled the western provinces after the fratricidal defeat of Constantine II in 340, used this anniversary issue partly as political theater, projecting stability at a moment when dynastic tension with his brother Constantius II in the east remained unresolved. He would be dead within months of this coin's latest possible striking date, killed in January 350 during the usurpation of Magnentius.