Constantine I. AD 307/310-337. Æ Follis (19mm, 3.26 g, 6h). Treveri (Trier) mint, 1st officina. Struck AD 322. Laureate bust right, wearing
trabea and holding eagle-tipped scepter / Globe set upon altar; three stars above; PTR•. RIC VII 342. Near EF, attractive brown patina.
The output of the mints at Londinium, Lugdunum, and Treveri served as an important source of propaganda for the entirety of the western empire during the first quarter of the fourth century AD. Constantine and Licinius both drew upon a variety of reverse designs in order to signify such ideas as strength, tranquility, and prosperity, though matters between the two were ever-unstable as war broke out between them in AD 316, most likely over a mutual envy and mistrust of one another. The resulting peace in early AD 317 was short-lived and tensions were only subdued, as hostilities once again gradually increased, culminating in the battle of Chrysopolis in AD 324, the execution of the Licinii, and the sole-reign of the house of Constantine.
A ‘happy tranquility,’ the beatas tranquillitas type conveys the tranquil state of the empire which Constantine and Licinius wished to promote.
