Bronze Follis, Urbs Roma 330-346 A.D.

[ElleKitty]

This coin is a bronze follis from Rome.  The reverse pictures Romulus and Remus, with the She-wolf that raised them.  The Mint is (I believe) Siscia.  The first letter of the exergue is hard to read.  I don't know if it's an Epsilon, a Gamma or even a Beta.

[Sap]

That looks like a gamma to me.

[ElleKitty]

I'll trust your eyes, Sap.

Exergue
Not all coins have text or symbols in their exergues, but this one does. The exergue is the space below the reverse design. The exergue of this coin contains [6] a Γ (a Greek gamma), [7] the letters SIS, and [8] a sunburst. The Γ indicates which officina (workshop) at the mint produced this coin. Western mints used Latin to number the officinae - P (prima, 1st officina), S (secunda, 2nd officina), T (tertia, 3rd officina), Q (quarta, 4th officina) and such. Eastern mints often used Greek letters, Α (alpha, 1st officina), Β (beta, 2nd officina), Γ (gamma, 3rd offina) and so on. The Γ of this coin indicates it was minted at the third officina. The letters SIS indicate the mint - SIS is the abbreviation for Siscia, now Sisak, Yugoslavia.

[scottishmoney]

You know, of all the many hundreds of varieties of Roman coins available, the Urbs Roma commemorative is the only one I want, how can't one love the She-Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus on the reverse?

[ElleKitty]

That's why I fell for it. ^^  It came in an airtite, in a little box.  The goddess Roma really doesn't look all that impressive on the front.  So, curiousity killed me, I wanted to see the backside.  That and the price clinched it.

[scottishmoney]

The Greeks commemorated events, like the defeat of the Persians on coins, but they were more in the high value NCLT category that most commems today fall into.  The Urbs Roma commems in the time of Constantine were monumental in that they were minted in dozens of mints throughout the Roman Empire and circulated on a much wider scale, these were lower value actual circulating coins that Marco or Julius took to the market to buy olive oil or pan with.

[Dumanyu]

I love this type, especially the She-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus. Here's mine from the Cyzicus mint.

[scottishmoney]

Okay guys and gals, enough of this discussion.  I do not yet own one of these, still after having looked at literally hundreds of them I have not yet found the proverbial "one"