A tiny but huge acquisition - Visigothic Nummus

This is a very important coin. No one even suspected the Visigoths in Spain had a bronze coinage, and this series wasn't discovered and published until the mid-20th century.

 

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Great coin VK. I love coins like that, coins that may not be impressive looking at them, but are impressive for the history they carry. I have one from Carthage, and have an Ostrogothic issue from Rome.

Not to offend anyone else, but to me such a coin is the mark of a advanced numismatist. Anyone can appreciate the beauty of a nice tetradrachm, or a gorgeous RR, or a splendid sestertius. It take more of a student of coins to appreciate a tiny Visigoth AE, or a offcenter nabatean bronze, or a crummy LRB, or even a miserable excuse of a coin that is most sogdian pieces.

I find most here can do both, love both awe inspiring as well as pedestrian coins. However, I find a lot of ancient collectors to be those who pursue large, attractive coins, and have maybe one reference book. I am more of the "lots of crappy little bronze POS coins, and hundreds of references" kind of guy.

 

VK, awesome pick up, its nice to know someone collect's this time period. i love the fact that we still find beauties, this is a great looking coin...well done..:thumb::thumb:

 

What a great piece of the past :thumb:

I love the history behind that coin.

The Visigoths were the best example of the overly simplistic “billiard ball” theory of barbarian migration. Here's a too superficial overview of their history:

The Gothic peoples (who were from southern Scandinavia or, perhaps, modern day Poland) had been pressured by the Huns to enter the Roman Empire by AD 376. (This would later have disastrous results for the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople.) The Gothic peoples not absorbed by the Huns subsequently coalesced and became known as the Visigoths.

The Visigoths, not happy with duplicitous Roman politics, eventually marched south into Italy with their demands for prestige and food. After sacking Rome in AD 410, the Visigoths migrated to southern Gaul. Prodded by the Romans, the Visigoths expanded southward to expel the Vandals from the Iberian Peninsula. The Vandals were, thus, forced to go to Northern Africa (continuing the billiard ball analogy of barbarian migration).

The Franks (under Clovis at the Battle of Vouille’ in AD 507) then defeated the Visigoths and eventually forced the Visigoths from Gaul to south of the Pyrenees mountains. The Visigoths, then, slowly consolidated their power base in the Iberian Peninsula. Eventually the Visigoths absorbed any remaining Suevi and Byzantine remnants in opposition that were found in the peninsula.

Here's a basic, but nevertheless, helpful and short video on Visigoth migration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfCvH3_4zxY

Good stuff.

guy

 

Love the history lessons

 

Just got it in the mail today so here it is in hand (with contrast upped slightly due to the sunlight, to better show the actual appearance). Very excited to finally have it in my collection!

 

Your image looks better than the sellers. Congrats.

 

Looks great VK! As Chris said earlier, it's a mature numismatist's coin, not that I know anything about maturity.

Is it the only type of Visigothic bronze, or are there others?

 

Thanks guys

John, there are more here, pretty much the only site I've found with a good group of them shown (there is really not much info on them online unfortunately):

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3061

 

So from that link, it would appear that you have the Crusafont Group B type, and a high-grade example at that.

 

EDIT: I totally spaced and posted a Vandalic coin here. There are no common Visigothic bronzes, but several types related to this issue.

 

Cool coin and since this era is one of my primary focuses, one I would love in my collection, but I think you may have mixed the tribes up

 

Minus ten points from Griffindor!

 

Man, I thought I was fast enough with the edit. How will we ever win the house cup now?

 

lol

 

Griffindor always wins the house cup. Dumbledore will step in at the last minute and crush the hopes of those nefarious Slytherins.

 

Medoraman -

Nice to see a kindred spirit. I too have lots of ugly little coins and an extensive reference library. I've never calculated the total cost of my coins and my references, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if I've spent more on my reference library than my coins.

One volume in my reference library is Vico, Cores, and Cores, Corpus Nummorum Visigothum (Madrid 2006). As you may know, there is considerable dispute about whether the small bronzes found near Emerita (many bearing an “SP” monogram) are Visigothic issues. Crusafont attributes these to the Visigoths, but the authors of Corpus Nummorum Visigothum do not include them as Visigothic coinage. Instead, the authors state (in an awkward English translation at pp. 115-116) that Crusafont recognizes the uncertainty of the attribution to the Visigoths and that "'it can be a matter of coins of a marginal nature, that is, issues of mining, larges faces [sic], local or ecclesiastic coinage.' We must add to all of this that they could also be coins issued by the noble oligarchies of the Guadalquivir valley or simple Byzantine coins struck in Hispania, which is what seems to be the most likely explanation. We are not specialists in Byzantine, Vandalic, or late-Roman coins, and so we cannot determine with absolute certainty the identity of these coins but we can say that we personally feel they are not of Visigoth origin.”

I know I've seen another source that argues that the Emerita bronzes were likely local issues, but I couldn't find it and gave up after fifteen minutes of looking.

 

welcome