Constantine I. AD 307/310-337. Æ Follis (22mm, 3.09 g, 6h). Londinium (London) mint. Struck AD 313-314. IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right / SOL INVI C TO COMITI, Sol standing left, extending right arm, holding globe in left; S-F//PLN. RIC VII 10. Near EF, even 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.
One of the final times in which a deity from the fading Roman religion was utilized on a coin, the Soli Invicto Comiti type, an exhortation to the unconquerable sun god, was used by Constantine in order to show, by extention, his invincibility as well.
