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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ValiantKnight, post: 2009321, member: 44210&quot;]I never properly shared these two until now, now that I have good photos of them.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/visigoth1_zps318e17f8.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/visigoth2_zps14a6f77e.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>These two rare nummi were struck by the Visigothic Kingdom, the dominant power in Hispania (Spain and Portugal) from the 5th to 8th centuries AD. The Visigoths, a Christianized Germanic tribe, are best known as the barbarians that sacked Rome in 410 AD, the first conquest of the city in eight centuries, and, although mild as far as sacks go, was a major psychological victory over the Romans. The Visigoths after the sack eventually made their way into Roman Gaul (France), where they were later granted the province of Aquitania after securing peace with the Western Empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>Over the course of the 5th century they expanded southwards into Hispania, fighting the Vandals for control of the land, and again the Romans, who briefly retook the peninsula during the campaigns of Emperor Majorian. But with the murder of Majorian, the Visigoths recovered their kingdom, and became one of the more powerful barbarian kingdoms in post-Roman Europe.</p><p><br /></p><p>Despite losing all but one of their Gallic provinces to the Franks and temporarily losing their southern territories to the Eastern Romans in the 6th century, the Visigoths ruled a stable and successful state in Hispania for nearly three centuries, adding to the culture and history of the peninsula.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 711 AD, Muslim armies of the Umayyad Caliphate crossed over from North Africa and invaded the Visigothic Kingdom, winning time and again over the disorganized Visigothic army. By 720 AD, the kingdom was gone and nearly all of Hispania was now under the rule of Islam. The Visigoths that refused to live under the invaders escaped to the unconquered northern part of the peninsula, where they established a resistance that became the start of the Christian Reconquista (&quot;Reconquest&quot;). The Reconquista to take back Spain would be finally be completed in 1492.</p><p><br /></p><p>These two coins are from Emerita (Merida) and carry an anonymous bust on the obverse with the legend CIVITA, and a monogram of the city&#039;s name on the reverse (I believe the obverse legend and the monogram form the Latin phrase CIVITA EMERITA - &quot;City of Emerita&quot;), and were struck sometime in the mid-7th century AD.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here are my other two Visigothic coins. Both carry a facing bust on the obverse, and a cross flanked by the letters S and P, meaning they were struck at the city of Hispalis (Seville).</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/VisigothNummusSpali_zps53315328.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/VisigothsSpaliNummus_zpscd456518.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>All four coins range from around 8 mm to 13 mm wide.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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