bust of ZENO ? to right under a loop looks like a (NO) reverse monogram oAD with an accent over the D tiny 5.MM and 0.25 GRAMS thanks for any help as this is not my area, was in a Greek lot I bought. -MX
Completely out of my sphere, but the monogram seems to resemble that of an Ostrogoth coin (Theodahad). See Dane's page of monograms OP images cropped and joined for ease of viewing:
Nice catch. Wish I could be as lucky. It looks real, but @Brian Bucklan might be better able to tell.
Just got back from vacation and caught this post. As everyone pointed out it certainly is a monogram of Theodahad and I assume you believe this to be silver (shouldn't stick to a magnet). There are half siliquas with this monogram paired with the obverse bust of Justinian with his name around (DN IVSTINIAN AVG or something like that). The problem is that these types are around 11 to 12mm and yours is a tiny 5mm. That would probably make this a barbarous copy of a Theodahad half siliqua. There is a bronze issue with the same obv/rev that is smaller, around 8 to 9mm but even that is a lot bigger than your example. Just from looking at the pic and from my own experience this is probably a contemporary issue. In my humble opinion not a whole lot of value but certainly a nice ancillary piece to an Ostrogothic collector.
Thank you gentleman! would it be possible that TheoDO is was what we read on the obverse? partially of course,,because the DNIVSTINIAN doesn't seem to go
Contemporary imitations often have misspelled/jumbled up legends, or even just random marks for letters, so this is probably the case with yours.
yes its silver, looks struck to me not a thin flan though like some of the regular siliqua appear to be.
I guess that pretty much nails it down. Probably contemporary, definitely unofficial. I really like that it's so small; makes it more interesting.
