Galerius AE Follis, Heraclea Mint, GENIO IMPERATORIS Reverse, Crescent Field Mark, c. AD 308–310

About this piece

Here’s a tany little slab of late Roman ego: a bronze follis of Galerius Maximianus, one of the Tetrarchy’s heavy-handed emperors, struck at the Heraclea mint around AD 308–310.

The obverse shows Galerius facing right, laureate and absolutely convinced the empire is still functioning like a well-oiled machine. The legend reads:

IMP C GAL VAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG

The reverse features Genius standing left, holding a patera and cornucopia, with the legend:

GENIO IMPERATORIS

Translation: “Here’s the protective spirit of the emperor, everything is blessed, prosperous, and under control.”

Reality: Rome was choking on civil wars, power grabs, religious persecution, inflation, and emperors multiplying faster than bad decisions at a coin show.

The reverse includes a crescent in the right field, with a Heraclea mintmark in the exergue, likely HTA or similar Heraclea workshop marking.

This coin has a strong imperial portrait, readable legends, dark ancient patina, and a reverse that actually has detail instead of looking like it spent 1,700 years under a tractor tire. Yes, there’s surface roughness. It’s an ancient bronze — not a freshly dipped Morgan dollar with delusions of MS-67.

Details:

Emperor: Galerius Maximianus
Date: circa AD 308–310
Mint: Heraclea, Thrace
Metal: Bronze
Denomination: Follis / reduced follis
Obverse: Laureate head of Galerius right
Reverse: Genius standing left, holding patera and cornucopia
Reverse Legend: GENIO IMPERATORIS
Field Mark: Crescent
Mintmark: Heraclea, likely HTA
Condition: VF details, ancient surface roughness

Bottom line: a sharp, moody late Roman bronze from the era when the empire was pretending it had a plan — and history was already laughing.