The bronzes struck in the Roman empire of the 4th century were generally very different to what had gone before. Instead of the bewildering number of reverse types to be found on the radiates of the second half of the third century, the fourth century is dominated by a successive sequence of stock reverse types that were changed every few years. Most of these coins were struck at every mint then operating across the empire, from Antioch and Alexandria in the east, to London and Lyons in the west. Both the obverse and reverse types would often be standardised so that, apart from the style of different die engravers at different mints, the only difference was in the mint marks that the coins carried.
But not all types were struck at every mint in operation. In the last years of the second decade of the 4th century, Constantine I, ruler of the western half of the empire, was preparing to go to war against his colleague, Licinius I, who reigned in the eastern provinces., or a trophy of arms ().
