A rare, pseudo-Roman siliqua of Honorius from the Visigoths

I was very fortunate to have acquired a coin of this rare, short-lived, and interesting type for my collection. This was among the first coins struck by the Visigoths, and a product of the turbulent early fifth century, soon after their sack of Rome in 410. After the sack and the death of their king Alaric, the Visigoths went on to continue to ravage Italy and southern Gaul. During their time in Gaul in 414 AD, the Visigoths under King Ataulf propped up Priscus Attalus as Roman emperor for the second time against Emperor Honorius. Successful campaigning against the tribe by Honorius's general Constantius III pushed the Visigoths to abandon Attalus in 415, who was later captured by Honorius-aligned Roman forces. In 415, the Visigoths were brought to the negotiating table and signed a peace treaty with Honorius; subsequently, the tribe fought as foederati for the Romans against other Germanic tribes that were occupying parts of the Western Roman Empire. In 418, as a result of their service, Honorius granted them their own territory in Aquitania (in later years, the Visigoths would also extended their control to Hispania).

During Attalus's second usurpation, siliquae were minted in his name by the Visigoths in Gaul, the mint city possibly being Narbonne (which was taken by the Visigoths in 413). Along with the Attalus siliquae, there are those that were stuck bearing Honorius's name and effigy; these carried the mintmark PSVR indicating Ravenna (however, the Visigoths never controlled Ravenna and this appropriation of a Ravenna mintmark could be seen as an attempt to make the coins more accepted). The Attalus siliquae have the reverse legend ending in "AVGG" and "AVGGG" while the Honorius coins were only stuck with the latter (interestingly enough on my coin it has "ACGG"; or possibly the C is a deformed V). It is not know with full certainty if these Honorius siliquae were struck before, during, or after the second usurpation and subsequent abandonment of Attalus, but according to J.P.C. Kent in his 1989 address to the Royal Numismatic Society, it is most likely that they were made after the 418 settlement treaty, with an ending date of 423 for this issue (although the earlier date of 415 is likely as well).

In the name of Honorius, Visigoths in Gaul
AR siliqua
Obv: D N HONORI VS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped bust right
Rev: VICTOR-IA ACGG, Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and spear
Mint: Narbonne (or another mint in Gaul)
Date: 415/418 to 423 AD
Ref: RIC X 3703 var.
Size: 1.1 grams, 11 mm wide



Western Roman Empire at the end of 418 AD:



Sources for information and map:

CNG (https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=163273)

Wikipedia

Please post your coins of Honorius, siliquae, the Visigoths, any/or anything else relevant!

 

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That's a neat coin with some nice history.

Mine is just a humble Æ.


Honorius (392 - 395 A.D.)
Æ2
O: DN HONORIVS P F AVG; pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
R: GLORIA ROMANORVM; Emperor standing, facing head right, holding standard and globe. ANTΓ in ex.
Antioch Mint
22mm
5.8g
RIC IX Antioch 68e

 

That's pretty neat! What caused the unusual 'overflow' edge?

 

Very interesting coin and great write-up! I have a couple of these (three I think). I will have to get them out of the bank vault to make pictures and post them here.

 

Thanks all for the likes and comments! Minor corrections to my write-up since the editing window has passed. I wrote PSVR when I actually meant to write PSRV as the mintmark. And PSRV needed to be in the coin attribution itself (somehow I forgot!).

Well I don’t know for sure but I’m sure it had something to do with the poorer quality control that was more prevalent with coins at this time. The Visigoths probably needed silver made into coins quick to pay their warriors, and so QC was put on the back burner. At least, that is my theory.

Can’t wait to see them!

 

Here is a less documented Honorius: i did not find this one in RIC VIII-IX OR X for CYZICUS, only recorded for antiochia.

obvN HONORIUS PF AVG
rev:GLORI AROMANORUM 3 EMPERORS AD. 406 - 408
CYZICUS SMKB mint
LRBC 2590-2

 

Very rare and interesting. Is this siliqua struck or cast?

 

Here is the first of my "Visigothic" siliquae in the name of Honorius:

 

Here is the second one. This one is stylistically quite close to the OP coin:

 

Here comes number 3:

 

This one is much bigger, but it may belong to this group of early Visigothic silver:

 

This is a Visigothic solidus, which is likely contemporary with these early siliquae. This solidus may have been minted during the reign of Athaulf, or more likely Wallia or Theoderic I at Toulouse.

The piece is very similar to no. 166 in MEC I, and it is likely the first Visigothic pseudo-imperial gold coin: