Nummus - Constantius II FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Sirmium

The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("happy times are returning") series was launched around 348 AD to celebrate the 1100th anniversary of Rome's founding, but the Sirmium mint had particular strategic urgency behind its output. Sirmium, in modern Serbia, served as a primary imperial residence and military staging point during Constantius II's prolonged campaign against the usurper Magnentius, who held the western provinces until his defeat at Mons Seleucus in 353. The mint was producing coinage under direct pressure of civil war.

RIC VIII #48 belongs to the "falling horseman" phase of the type, struck after the larger earlier module was reduced — a cost-cutting response to the financial strain of that same conflict.