411, Lot: 443. Estimate $100. Sold for $70. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Divus Claudius II Gothicus. Died AD 270. Æ Fractional Follis (18mm, 4.99 g, 6h). Rome mint, 4th officina. Struck under Constantine I, AD 317-318. DIVO CLAVDIO OPTIMO IMP, laureate and veiled head right / REQVIES OP-TIMORVM MERIT, Divus Claudius seated left on curule chair, raising hand and holding scepter; RQ. RIC VII 106. VF, dark green patina. Struck on an unusually thick and heavy flan.

From the Finn Johannessen Collection. Ex CNG Inventory 860051 (December 2009).

As the Tetrarchy fell apart, Constantine began to publicly assert that he was descended from Claudius Gothicus. This illustrious ancestry formed the basis for Constantine’s claim to have the right to rule over an undivided empire.