Divus Claudius II AE Barbarous Radiate Antoninianus, 0.6g, 11mm OBV: Radiate head right. REV: Flaming altar with horned roof, cross above. Five dots on altar, one panel. Dot to left, right and below. REF: None Similar to the official CONSACRATIO issues for Claudius II.
For comparison, this is what was being copied. If we photographed them together this 4.5g one would seem huge but some of the earlier barbarous radiates are considerably over Gil's 0.6g one. I would really like to know just how long they continued making the copies. Decade? Century?
That's a very cool Barbie-addition of Claudius II Gothicus, Gil-galad ... congrats! My only example of this guy just happens to be the raunchiest coin in my collection ... and obviously, my mangy-example isn't nearly as sweet as your new barbie-score!!
Nice looking coin, never really got into any imitation styled coins though they are interesting. Can you please stop staying Barbie? My doll collection is feeling all weirded out.
I'm not real interested in them but had the chance to get a couple cheap ones. Here is another I just got a week before this one. That makes a total of two barbs I own. Tetricus I AE Barbarous Radiate, 10mm, 1.0g OBV: Barbarous radiate head of Tetricus. REV: Pax standing left. REF: None.
Funny, haha. But yeah, I also have a fairly decent Claudius II example. Claudius II Gothicus AE Antoninianus, 268-270 AD, Antioch, 3.8g, 20mm OBV: IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, Radiate head left. REV: AEQVITAS AVG, Aequitas standing left holding scales and cornucopia. REF: RIC V-1 197
Funny, but all these 'copies' seem to look more like the Tetricus I portrait than they ever do Claudius or etc etc.
Scholars are confident production of barbarous radiates stopped very shortly after the Gallic Empire was reconquered by Aurelian in 273. Why? Because there are almost no barbarous radiates with two-figure reverses. Here is the reasoning. Almost all BRs imitated official types. There was one very noticeable change in official types between the Gallo-Roman empire and the reign of Aurelian. Under the Gallo-Roman empire there were almost no coins with reverse types with two figures. In stark contrast, under Aurelian (who lasted to 275) a high percentage of coins had two standing figures on the reverse. (Search for "Aurelian" on your favorite site.) The lack of two-figure BRs means coins of Aurelian were hardly copied. Copiers were not copying coins current under Aurelian (or later emperors). They didn't use his legends or legends of later emperors. I used to collect BRs seriously with contacts in England and found only these two small examples that suggest coins of Aurelian were copied: This one is very small (about 10 mm) and has a very unusual two-figure reverse. The next one is a bit larger (about 12 mm) and has bust decoration the reminds one of the decorated armor of Aurelian or Probus (without certainty). The great rarity of copies that appear to copy coins later than Tetricus (273) is convincing evidence that the minting of BRs stopped shortly after 273.
Is there hoard evidence that official coins of Aurelian were circulated widely in the regions so there was no need for the barbarous copies? As common as official Gallic coins are, I wondered what situations made them so desirable to copy. Lately there have been huge numbers on the market with most from the usual types. Relatively few were Gallienus in the groups I saw so I had to have this one.
I collected and wrote about these for a little while. Doug, if you're interested in the series, I recommend finding checking out the article "Counterfeit Coins in Roman Britain" by George Boon, published in Coins and the Archaeologist, ed. John Casey & Richard Reece, BAR 4, 1974. It quite cogently discusses all of the major periods of counterfeiting in Britain - the Claudian era copies, the cast sestertii of the 2nd century, the 'barbarous radiates,' the Constantinian copies, the Fallen Horsemen, and other later imitations. With regards to the dating, if memory serves me right, they should have died out around 283, based on hoard evidence and the infrequent copies of Probus and Aurelian. By the way, the term 'barbarous radiate' for these is a bit of a misnomer. There is good evidence that these were mostly produced within the empire, in Gaul.
Gaul in the day was marginally in the Empire depending on how you rank the status of the Gallic Emperors. My personal and very unscientific observation shows many more Gallic than mainstream rulers (Gallienus, Claudius) and many more Tetrici than Victorinus with no Postumus or after Claudius to speak of anyway. Are there any identifiable as copies of any of the rare Gallics (Marius, Laelianus)? I have never had an interest in these but a favorite dealer bought a blue million of the things so I seem to have looked a many in passing over the part 3 years or so. I would be interested in seeing coins not copying anything but using original types (I recall seeing a reverse with a retiarius long ago) but will not be gathering the Spes and Pax coins.
Sure, Gaul was only marginally a part of the empire at the time, but that by no means makes it 'barbarous!' Anyway, to answer your questions. There are no truly original types in the series. They are all derived to some extent from the official coinages. The most unique type is actually closely related to the one illustrated above by Valentinian, and appears to show a figure standing on a platform, holding a fish. It is actually a corruption of the PROVIDEN DEOR type of Aurelian. I believe there are some copies of the rare Gallic rulers known, but it is hard to say, as the vast majority of imitations do a very poor job of copying legends.
