It’s Aliiiivee

It lives! Also Constantine!

The ECC blog is back from the dead! After almost three years off, we’ll be posting regularly here to share new products, deals, and our show schedule. We’re also excited to start posting more educational materials and glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes here at ECC.

For now, we just want to remind our readers not to miss out on our selection of Constantinian dynasty coins this month. Constantine I, also called Constantine the Great, was one of the most forceful players in history. He stitched the fragmented Roman empire back together, and became the first Christian ruler of the same. He founded a dynasty that ruled for generations and founded a new capital city, Constantinople, that would lead the Roman empire for over a thousand years. He was also incredibly politically savvy. In the almost two millennia since his death, historians have debated whether he was truly taken with Christianity, or if he simply used it as a tool for his own gain.

A surprising number of these achievements happened in May! On May 20, some almost 1,700 years ago, Constantine the Great convened the First Council of Nicaea. Few other gatherings have made the same impact on the world’s biggest religion. The council created the Nicene creed, still used by millions today; discussed several issues of Christology; and even created a calendar that is still in use the better part of two millennia later. Five years later, on May 11, 330 AD, Constantine dedicated his new capital city, Constantinople. He died seven years after that, on May 22 337 AD. He was baptized mere days before his death, finally becoming an official member of the faith that he shaped so fundamentally.

ECC has hundreds of coins of Constantine in stock, slabbed, packaged, and raw, including some of the earliest depictions of Christian religious figures and ideas in numismatic art. We also stock coins of all of his successors, from Constantius II, who was almost as clever as Constantine himself, to poor Crispus, executed by his father for being a little too good at military matters. For further reading, we recommend this article by CoinWeek.