Lyon nummus


September 2016, a coin for a new city
A nummus made in Lyon
This nummus was made in Lyon in AD 332 and is one of 3,369 similar coins in the Seaton Down Hoard.
It depicts the personification of the city of Constantinopolis on one side and a winged figure of Victory on the other. Coins like this were issued across the Roman world to celebrate the foundation of Constantine I’s brand new capital city. Constantinopolis later became Byzantium and is now Istanbul in modern Turkey.
This coin was the 1,000,000th object recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.