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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 8183546, member: 19463&quot;]This thread is a bit of a dilemma for me.&nbsp; I like imitations and have a few but we have discussed the subject in the past and I have no firm idea what I showed then and what I did not.&nbsp; The fact remains that I probably showed my favorite examples which raises the question as to whether I should show them again (and again???) or select something relatively boring just because it may possibly be new to those who have been here a while.&nbsp; Somehow I prefer showing what I consider &#039;better&#039; barbarous and will apologize to old timers who have seen them before.&nbsp; My favorite barbs are earlier than the period of greatest interest here so I&#039;ll stick to a few from the 4th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>Easily my favorite is the URBS ROMA wolfie with legends that read correctly and style that does not seem to strange unless you consider neing a mirror image of both sides to be &#039;strange&#039;.&nbsp; The TRP mintmark assigns the coin to Trier which was often a bit strange in some ways making it a question as to just what is and what is not official. I say this is barbarous but I can see that it could have just been &#039;Friday afternoon&#039;.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431109[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The best barbarous coins are, IMHO, those with the worst departure from &#039;normal&#039;.&nbsp; This Falling Horseman shows the alphabet simplified a bit leaving a bunch of I&#039;s, a couple O&#039;s and perhaps a T or an H if you stretch the point.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431113[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This one does away with all that foolishness and reduces the legend to nothing but I after I after I.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431114[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>While on Falling Horsemen, it is well known that the rarest and most desirable of all the types is the rare issue in the name of Magnentius.&nbsp; I do not have one to show.&nbsp; If there is anything more rare than rare it is something that does not exist which describes what I am calling a Falling Horseman of Decentius.&nbsp; Unfortunately the lettering leave some points less than obvious.&nbsp; The first two letters are certainly DN.&nbsp; The next letter could be D or M (not to exclude a couple dozen other options) followed by a crack that eliminates a letter.&nbsp; The we have either a C or a G and EN finishing the left side.&nbsp; Decentius has one fewer letter than does Magnentius and counting the letters makes this lack that extra bump or N after the C while Decentius has the correct bump count.&nbsp; The right side legend is pretty clearly TIVSAVGV which could be either unless you are not willing to accept a coin of Decentius as Augustus.&nbsp; The reverse shows a garble save the clear PARATIO on the right and one S in exergue.&nbsp; I&#039;ll blame this coin on Siscia or the second shop at Trier (TRS) or some other mint that has an S in the game.&nbsp; The Magnentius FH coin known is from Arles PARL with FH2 --- not even close to this coin.&nbsp; This is obviously barbarous but it might sell for more if I claim it is an issue of &quot;Paul the Chain&quot;, Martinus or Silvanus one of whom might have supported Decentius as Augustus.&nbsp; Hey, it works for people selling Aureolus coins. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie14" alt=":angelic:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431119[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally is a low point of my collecting activity.&nbsp; Many years ago, I pulled the coin below from a junk box because I thought I could make it into a piece of jewelry for my wife.&nbsp; The coin was substantially one sided but had a clear Christian symbol that would make a necklace she might like.&nbsp; Rather than drilling a hole, I enclosed it in a rim mount intended to accept a US quarter.&nbsp; My wife wore it to a dinner at Victor Failmezger&#039;s place where we met his out of town friend who specialized in late Roman. (I did not at the time but was doing photos for Victor&#039;s book.) He pointed out that the coin seemed to be something that does not exist - a Chi Rho AE2 of Siscia.&nbsp; We really do not know if this was intended to be of Magnentius but the reverse sort-of refers to a Caesar so we assume this was issued for one of the brothers by someone who did not know that Siscia was not an option.&nbsp; I would really feel bad if I made jewelry out of the only known official coin of its type and mint.&nbsp; It is bad enough with a coin as barbarous as it is.&nbsp; If you want it, talk to my wife.&nbsp; She still wears it on appropriate occasions.</p><p>SALVS DD NN AVG AESC? (?)SIS</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431150[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, that is how I met Valentinian.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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