Julian minted these at Lugdunum (Lyon) while still Caesar under Constantius II, before his troops' unauthorized proclamation of him as Augustus in 360 forced the rupture between the two. The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("restoration of happy times") reverse type had become the dominant bronze issue across the western mints by the mid-350s — so ubiquitous that it functions almost as a barometer of the period's administrative reach.
RIC VIII 195 for Lugdunum places this emission in the second officina. Lyon was a critical western mint precisely because of its proximity to the Rhine frontier, where Julian was actively campaigning against Alamannic incursions through 357–359.
Julian minted these at Lugdunum (Lyon) while still Caesar under Constantius II, before his troops' unauthorized proclamation of him as Augustus in 360 forced the rupture between the two. The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("restoration of happy times") reverse type had become the dominant bronze issue across the western mints by the mid-350s — so ubiquitous that it functions almost as a barometer of the period's administrative reach.
RIC VIII 195 for Lugdunum places this emission in the second officina. Lyon was a critical western mint precisely because of its proximity to the Rhine frontier, where Julian was actively campaigning against Alamannic incursions through 357–359.