What to notice
The city wears a helmet
The portrait is Roma, the personification of Rome. VRBS ROMA names the city rather than an individual emperor.
A founding legend
The she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus recalls the traditional story of Rome’s beginnings. Look for the twins beneath her and the stars above.
Made in Arles
A coin can celebrate one city while being struck in another. Its mint connects the Roman story directly with Arles.
The two-minute story
An old story in a new world
The coin’s recorded date places it just after Constantine dedicated Constantinople in AD 330. The geography of imperial power was changing, but Rome’s name and founding story still carried enormous weight.
The VRBS ROMA coinage offers a compact expression of that enduring identity. A helmeted Roma appears on one face; on the other, the she-wolf cares for the twins from the city’s foundation legend. These familiar symbols could travel across an empire whose political and religious life was being reshaped.
For this collection, the mint makes the story especially close. Arles was part of the working Roman world, not simply a later place in which Roman ruins survived. This small coin allows us to connect the city we visited with the people, institutions, and stories that once moved through it.
The personal thread
Why this coin belongs here
Arles became one of the family’s favourite places in Provence. During the visit, this coin returned to the city where it was made and was photographed inside the amphitheatre. The small coin and the surviving Roman setting bring the personal memory and the history into the same frame.
A question to share
Can you find the two babies? What story might someone tell about them?
Collector record
The attribution, physical details, and documented history of this specimen.
- Issuing context
- City commemorative, under Constantine I
- Recorded issue date
- AD 331–332
- Measurements
- 18 mm · 2.73 g · die axis 6h
- Mint and workshop
- Arles (Arelate / Constantina), second officina
- Obverse
- VRBS – ROMA; helmeted and cuirassed Roma facing left
- Reverse
- She-wolf nursing the twins, two stars and a palm branch above; SCONST below
- Catalogue references
- RIC 368 · C.18 · F.795 · EMA 45/6–2 · AMA 961
- Dealer inventory
- CGB brm_985102 · CONNOR / VCoins product 2185938
- Condition notes
- Centred strike, clear reverse and brown patina (dealer description)
- Collection status
- Owned
Measurements, metal description, mint, workshop and catalogue references follow the matching CGB catalogue entry. The supplied VCoins screenshots corroborate the specimen record. The museum link provides context for the type.