Cool little barbarous fallen horseman

hi all!
While not in great shape, impressive or expensive... (its the opposite), I thought a few of you may appreciate this little barbarous Fel Temp fallen horseman.

I've seen lots of immative or barbarous coins but many seem to be imitating coins from the era of Tetricus... and I hadn't noticed many like this.

Anyway, it's very small and I had a difficult time just getting photos this clear. In hand you can see the details much better...the horse, the horseman and the soldier. The figures and artistic style does have a certain charm to it.

Any other immative fallen horseman out there?

J

11mm
1.2g
After 348-ish AD

Here's a real one for comparison for those not seeing it

 

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I sometimes have to wonder what the non-roman engravers saw in Roman coins. Many have a very hard time passing for anything like the originals. Legends can be really funny.

 

Oh, now that is just a cool little coin!

 

Haha, yes and although I get lots of eye-rolls, she puts up with me rambling about coins all of the time!

 

Good photos of such a small coin.

The proportions of the soldiers and horse have been altered in an interesting way. The fallen horseman is much more upright than on the Roman version.

 

Is there any kind of reference or study that has been done on barbarous imitations of Roman coins?

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking... this coin's size hardly makes it a substitute for a real one as far as value... must just be a local currency of smaller value, inspired by the real thing. As for the legends, on this one, they appear to be complete gibberish but I have a few others with some interesting and readable legends.

 

there is a good study on FTR's

"Copies of the FEL TEMP REPARATIO Coinage in Britain" by R. J. Brickstock

I have more references at the bottom of this page- http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/barb2/

 

Thanks Victor!

 

Thanks! I had to use this little macro lens that clips to my iPhone, it works pretty well for quick photos.

As for the artist's portrayal, my favorite part is how the soldier appears to be spearing the guy directly in the face. Haha... poor little horseman

 

Thats pretty neat.

I believe theses are unofficial.




The closest coin I have to the OP is this GLORIA EXERCITVS

 

The first cuts the alphabet down to I with the occasional O. The second saw no need for the O.
There are two reasons for making unofficial coins. One is to counterfeit for profit and circulate along with the real thing hoping no one notices. The second is to provide circulating currency in an area where there is a lack of the real thing or where the authority of the Roman state is not recognized but the idea of using money in commerce seems valid. These do fine for this last situation. If it will buy bread, it is good money.

 

Barbarous imitations are so cool. Thanks for showing this.

 

Cool OP-coin, OJ ... congrats

Ummm, I only have one barbarous example and here it is ...

BARBAROUS ROMAN COIN
=> FEL TEMP REPARATIO
Time of Constantius II
348-351 AD
Diameter: 13.5mm
Weight: 1.07 grams
Obverse: Blundered legend, Pearl diademed draped bust right
Reverse: Soldier spearing fallen horseman
Other: a beautiful example of a coin from the fringes of the Roman Empire. Often called barbarous imitations it is more likely these served as semi official currency when official issues were not available



Oh sorry, here is my only other Barbarous example ...

 

At 1.2g, what you have there is an imitative coin commonly referred to as a minima. It is not a counterfeit per se, because it clearly wasn't meant to deceive anyone - the style and weight aren't anything close to the original. (Great example btw!)

Doug mentioned two reasons for unofficial coins, counterfeits and circulating coinage outside of Roman authority. A third possibility, at least in the case of the minimae, is that they served as tokens - some have suggested military tokens.

Here is my one imitative FH, but not a minima - pretty close to normal size. The style is funky to say the least...

 

Here is a barbarous FH that I picked up recently. It is an ex De Wit collection that is featured in the Künker Catalog:

Roman Imperial: Constantius II (337-361 CE) Æ Centenionalis, Contemporary Imitation (Mattingly pl. xviii, 16 for type)

Obv: Rosette-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: Soldier standing left, spearing fallen horseman

From the estate of Thomas Bentley Cederlind. Ex De Wit Collection, Part I (Künker 121, 12 March 2007), lot 39; Giessener Münzhandlung 76 (22 April 1996), lot 15