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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2965695, member: 19463&quot;]A question I find consistently intriguing is the relationship between official and unofficial or barbarous coins.&nbsp; This comes up in just about every time and place to some degree but there are some where the number of &#039;less than normal&#039; coins exceeds what seems reasonable for what we have in &#039;normal&#039;.&nbsp; The greatest single group of these strikes me as what we call the Barbarous Radiates copying coins of the later Gallo-Roman Empire - Postumus to Tetricus.&nbsp;&nbsp; Another example is the abnormally large number of odd style coins of Magnentius.&nbsp; Certainly the Iberian bronzes fit this group but there is absolutely no reason we should suspect that one explanation would fit each situation.&nbsp; We can theorize that these barbarous things filled a need for coinage after the withdrawal of normal authority from the region but we can not prove when, how and why the issues were made.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I see no significance in things like the coin being square beyond noting that the maker saw no particular importance in following that particular characteristic of the original.&nbsp; From a standpoint of spending, round and ragged would be equal.&nbsp; I can&#039;t believe that coins like the first shown here circulated on par with the ones like Bing showed but my 20-21st century brain does not share much with the culture that produced these so I should not be too quick to dismiss any possibility. </p><p><br /></p><p>As a coin collector rather than a true numismatist, I have shown favor to nice coins with eye appeal (and I am a bottom feeder compared to many).&nbsp; Numismatic scholars of the past centuries have gravitated to studies of the beautiful and easy to love coins from places we know from our history books and written off some of these &#039;lesser&#039; items as not worthy of their time.&nbsp; Obviously it will be easier to find order where order exists and trying to make sense out of all of our &#039;official&#039; coinages is a task yet to be completed.&nbsp; For the present, we should appreciate the fact that coins like these exist and keep our minds open to patterns that emerge from the confusion.&nbsp; The first step to finding a better answer is the admission that we do not already know it all. </p><p><br /></p><p>Below are a few Iberians I liked well enough to buy even though I have never made an effort to understand the whole subject.&nbsp; Are these normal and representative of what supported commerce in their time and place more that the little scraps of mtal that started this thread?&nbsp; My first two are the &#039;same&#039; type but share little in terms of style.&nbsp; What is the significance of the differences between the two and the other bull coins shown in this thread?&nbsp; I would love to know. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]726826[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]726827[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]726828[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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