`Fourth Century Coins Discovered at St Andrew`s Theological College.`

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The Greek Australian VEMA
TO BHMA
DECEMBER 2015
Fourth Century Coins Discovered
at St Andrew’s Theological College
Any visitor to St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College would be familiar with the two offices adjoining the
main classrooms, one of which is currently occupied by my brother Chris.
Around June this year I happened to be
rummaging through his bookshelf when I
discovered four cardboard slips containing what seemed to be authentic ancient
coins.
I could not understandthe Latin acronyms on the coins but all four of the slips
were clearly marked in English. They
were of Constantine the Great (the first
Roman emperor to convert to Christianity), his mother St Helen, Constantinople
personified as a female warrior (with a
Nike on the reverse), and a coin of the
usurper emperor Magnentius (who ruled
briefly from A.D. 351-53), which had a
chi-rho, or the first two initials of the
word ‘Christ’ – known as the Christogram
– on the reverse. As a historian, I was
thrilled to find these gems that had apparently been forgotten by the passage
of time.
The four coins illustrate the gradual
Christianisation of the empire that was
begun by Constantine but was not fully
effected in his reign; the emperor had to
negotiate between Christianity and paganism in his attempt to consolidate and
strengthen the fragmented Roman empire and it was not until after his death in
A.D. 337 that more emphatic Christian
imagery could be used by the imperial
court.
Whilst Chris, the College registrar Anastasios Kalogerakis (the former occupant
of the office) and I debated over whether
the coins were genuine, an idea struck;
what if we were to get them authenticated? I contacted Dr Bernard Doherty, a
friend of the College and alumnus of
Macquarie University, which has an excellent numismatics department, and he
suggested that I send an email to Dr Gil
Davis, who is the managing editor of the
Journal of the Numismatic Association of
Australia, to find out how to go about it.
I was ready to do this, and happily
showed the coins to faculty and students
who were equally surprised and excited
about the discovery.
What happened next? Well, the blame
lies squarely with me. I had to put the
finishing touches on my PhD and neglected these little treasures, which were
once again threatened by oblivion (in my
desk drawer), when in mid-October our
efficient registrar sent me an email asking if I had taken the coins to be authenticated yet. Without further delay, I contacted Dr Davis, who kindly put me in
contact with Mr Colin Pitchfork, an expert numismatist. I visited Mr Pitchfork
at Noble Numismatics on Macquarie
Street in Sydney, and he graciously took
the time to evaluate the coins. Mr Pitchfork quickly identified the coins I brought
him with recourse to several hefty books
on Roman numismatics, including volumes from the standard British catalogue entitled Roman Imperial Coinage
(RIC, in 10 volumes; Mr Pitchfork used
volumes VII and VIII).
The one of Constantine (figure 1) features the god Sol on the reverse, with the
inscription SOL INVICTO COMITI, which
means ‘The Unconquered Sun, Companion,’ emblazoned around the god who
wears a radiate crown and holds an orb
or globe in his left hand. The obverse features a bust of the emperor wearing a
laureate crown and a cuirass, with the inscription CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, which
is an abbreviation of ‘Constantine, Pius
Felix Augustus’ (meaning Constantine, Pious and Blessed Augustus). The coin is
numbered RIC VII 105; it can be dated to
A.D. 316 and was minted in Trier, which
is in modern day Germany.
The second coin (figure 2), dating from
A.D. 325-26, is of Constantine’s mother,
St Helen, who is depicted on the obverse
as diademed and mantled. The inscription around her head reads, FL HELENA
AVGVSTA, the ‘FL’ being short for ‘Flavia,’
and on the reverse is depicted the goddess SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, or the ‘Security of the Republic,’ who raises her
hem with her left hand and lowers a
branch with her right. This coin was minted in Heraclea in Thrace and is RIC VII
79.
The third coin (figure 3) is of Constantinople, which was dedicated by Constantine on the former site of Byzantion
(Byzantium) in the year A.D. 330 to become the capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire for just over a thousand years. As
mentioned above, the coin features Constantinople personified as a female warrior wearing a laurel, helmeted and mantled and holding a sceptre. Around her
head is minted the word CONSTANTINOPOLIS. On the reverse we see a Nike
or Victory goddess standing with her left
foot on the prow of a boat, holding a
spear with her right hand and leaning on
a shield with her left. The coin was minted in Rome between A.D. 330-31, around
the time of the founding of the city; its
RIC number is VII 339.
The final coin (figure 4) is of the emperor Magnentius, who usurped control
of the Western territories of Italy and
parts of North Africa from Constans, one
of the emperor Constantine’s sons, in
350. He was defeated by Constans’ brother, the Arian Constantius II in 353, after which he committed suicide by falling
on his own sword. This coin is significant
because, as Mr Pitchfork explained, it depicts on the reverse one of the earliest
images of the Christogram – in this case
flanked on the left and right by the alpha
(Α) and omega (Ω) – on Roman coinage.
The coin is badly damaged and so the
legends that appeared on either side are
lost. But since we know the RIC number
(VIII 318), we can be pretty sure that
around the bust of Magnentius (below
which one would have clearly seen his
drape and cuirass) one would have been
able to read D N MAGNENTIVS P F AVG,
an abbreviation of ‘Dominus Noster [Our
Lord] Magnentius Pius Felix Augustus.’
On the reverse around the chi-rho it
would have said SALVS DD NN AVG ET
CAES, which, to jump straight to the
translation, means the ‘The Safety of our
Lords the Augustus and Caesar’ (the Caesar being Magnentius’ brother, Decentius). This coin was minted at Trier between the years A.D. 352-53.
The future of these coins will be determined in due course. Hopefully they will
be encased and mounted somewhere in
St Andrew’s for visitors to admire – veritable windows into the beginnings of
Christendom.
Many thanks to Mr Pitchfork for verifying the authenticity of these coins and
for giving me the invaluable information
that I would have not been able to acquire on my own. Gratitude is also due to
Dr Doherty and Dr Davis for facilitating
the process.
Dr Mario Baghos
Associate Lecturer in Church History
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox
Theological College
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