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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tejas, post: 7445593, member: 84905&quot;]A wonderful coin, but I would be careful with attributions to Avars or unknown Germanic tribes. These are mostly sales attributions, which are meant to increase the commercial value of a coin. I&#039;m not even sure that Avars ever produced any coins at all. I think they stand in as default attribution, when a coin does not match an official mint style or the legends are blundered. It is the same with the famous &quot;unknown Germanic tribe&quot;. With some clear exceptions, &quot;unknown Germanic tribes&quot; did not produce&nbsp; coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are of course the known Germanic &quot;tribes&quot;, which established kingdoms on the territory of the Roman empire (Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, Gepids and later Anglo-Saxons) and hence adopted or continued a coin-based economy. And then there are a few exceptions of coins and coin-like pendants that were produced outside the Roman empire, mostly in the Przeworsk (imitative silver denars) and Chernyakhov (imitative gold coin pendants) cultures of eastern Europe. (My coin above with the eight-legged horse belongs to the latter group and was probably produced by people that we would identify as Goths, but who likely called themselves Greutingi at the time). </p><p><br /></p><p>If an imitation cannot be matched to either of the aforementioned groups, it is most likely the product of an irregular Roman or Byzantine mint, an ancient forgery or an official coin of particularly &quot;poor&quot; style.</p><p><br /></p><p>I cannot say anything definitiv about the beautiful coin above, but my hunch is that it is an official solidus of somewhat &quot;barbaric&quot; style.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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