Hello, I have been interested in the dark ages for years. This wigmund styca I have has been in my collection for about 2 years now and I love it. However within the last few months I’ve picked up a vandalic hilderic nummis. Use this thread to post coins from ancient Germanic kingdoms or any dark age civilization! Ps sorry for bad camera quality
Sisebut, Visigothic Kingdom AV tremissis Obv: + SISEBVTVS REX, bust facing Rev: + TOLETO PIVS, bust facing Mint: Toledo Date: 612-621 AD Ref: Miles 183a Odoacer, Kingdom of Italy AE nummus Obv: OD[O-VAC], bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust right Rev: Odoacer's monogram (letters ODOVA) within wreath Mint: Ravenna Date: 476-493 AD Ref: RIC X 3502 Rome under Theodoric, Ostrogothic Kingdom AE follis Obv: IMVIC-TA ROMA, Roma helmeted, facing right Rev: She-wolf standing left, suckling Romulus and Remus, XL (40) above, dot V dot in ex Mint: Rome (struck 498-526 AD) Ref: BMC 24 Thrasamund, Vandal Kingdom AE nummus Obv: D N RG TRSA, pearl-diademed, draped bust right Rev: Victory advancing right, holding wreath, cross to right(?) Mint: (North Africa, probably Carthage) Date: 496-523 AD Ref: MIB Vandals 16 Louis the Pious, Carolingian Empire AR denier Obv: + HLVDOVVICVS IMP, legend around cross in circle Rev: + METALLVM, legend around cross in circle Mint: Metallum Date: 816-819 AD Ref: MEC 762 Athalaric, Ostrogothic Kingdom AE decanummium Obv: INVICT-A ROMA, Roma helmeted, facing right Rev: D N / ATHAL / ARICVS / REX, legend within wreath, X (10) below Mint: Rome Date: 526-534 AD Ref: COI 86; MIB 78; MEC 1, 133-4 Theodahad, Ostrogothic Kingdom AE decanummium Obv: INVICT-A ROMA, Roma helmeted, facing right Rev: D N / THEODA / HATHVS / REX within wreath, X below Mint: Rome Date: 534-536 AD Ref: COI 90 Hilderic, Vandal Kingdom AE nummus Obv: HILD [REX], pearl-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right Rev: Cross potent within wreath, ring above Mint: Carthage (struck 523-530 AD) Ref: BMC Vandals 9 Gelimer, Vandal Kingdom AE Nummus Obv: GEIL-AMIR, pearl-diademed, draped bust right Rev: Monogram of Gelimer within wreath Mint: Carthage, struck 530-533 AD Ref: MEC 1, 28-30; BMC Vandals 4-6, Very Rare
ValliantKnight, how on Earth were you able to attribute these? I've seen so many of these tiny bronzes, both with and without gibberish inscriptions, but I don't know what to look for. What was it that helped you nail down the specific attribution?
I made this catch recently on Ebay. This is a Merovingian Decanummi. A Merovingian what??? Yes, a Decanummi. These are excessively rare and mine is probably the only piece outside a public collection (appart perhaps from the piece that appeared in the Ratto sale 1938). The coin is large, with a diameter of over 2cm and a weight of some 2.5 gr. It was minted at Marseille, probably during the reign of King Theudebert of Metz.
This coin was already posted here in CT, but I really liked it. I love these “völkerwanderung” coins! I have about a dozen, but this one is the most important and rare in my collection: Visigoths - AV Tremissis - Cinthila (636-639) 18mm, 1.36g Emerita mint (Mérida, Spain) - Found near Évora, Portugal, in 2011. +CINTHILA REX• +EMERITA PIVS
Very nice coins, everyone, and a truly fascinating collection area! These (common and admittedly very unappealing) overstrikes copying a Greek coin type are often attributed to the Bastarnae, a tribe that in the Roman period settled in Eastern Europe in an area between the Danube and the Dnieper rivers. If this attribution as well as the common scholarly thesis that the Bastarnae were a Germanic or mixed Celtic-Germanic tribe are correct, these are arguably the earliest coins minted by a Germanic political entity: Eastern Celts: Bastarnae? (interpretation Topalov), AE 18 overstruck on Greek coin, 2nd–1st century BC, southeastern Bulgaria. Obv: primitive head of Strymon, die almost worn blank. Rev: ornamented trident. 18mm, 5.70g. Ref: imitating SNG Copenhagen 1298; see Pannov: Koine (2013), pp. 191–2; Macdonald: Overstruck (2009), pp. 99–114.
