Featured Gelimer, last King of the Vandals and Alans

Another what I like to call a "VK (ValiantKnight) coin" !
I had been meaning to pick up another Vandal Kingdom coin but had been putting it off as my interest was directed towards other post-Roman Germanic coinage (mainly Ostrogothic - got 9 in the last year!) and more recently, early Italian Byzantine coinage. This is my first Vandal purchase in nearly a year and a half and my first struck in the name of one of their kings (milestone!!!). And of course, I can't say no to a monogram that I like .

Some historical background:

The Vandals were a Germanic tribe originally from Scandinavia, and had, over the first few centuries AD, migrated to Hispania (Spain, where they took on the Alans - another migrating tribe - after the death of the Alan king) and later in the 430s AD had reached Roman North Africa. The Romans, not having the adequate resources or manpower during this time to completely dislodge any of the barbarian tribes encroaching further onto its shrinking territory, granted them the African territory they held. By conquest, the Vandals later took over further Roman territory, conquering Carthage in 439 AD. In 455 AD, for the second time in eight centuries, Rome was invaded and sacked by an enemy, this time by the Vandals. They had by now established themselves as a major Mediterranean player alongside the Western and Eastern Roman Empires and seemed here to stay after a combined effort by both empires to retake North Africa from them failed spectacularly in 467 AD.

Fast forward to 530 AD. Through a coup, Gelimer (born 480 AD) came to power as the new king of the Vandal Kingdom. He had deposed the previous king and his cousin Hilderic, on account of Hilderic abandoning his Arian (not Aryan!) Christian faith (the main faith of the Vandal population) and converting to the Catholic Christianity followed mostly by the Roman population. Three years later, on the pretense of restoring Hilderic to the Vandal throne, Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor Justinian launched an invasion of the Vandal Kingdom while much of the kingdom's forces were fighting a rebellion in Vandal-held Sardinia. Gelimer fought against them, but the Byzantines came out victorious (but were not able to save Hilderic, who had been executed on Gelimer's orders), and he surrendered. The former king was spared, however, and accepted an offer to live well in retirement in Galatia (in modern Turkey).

Gelimer, Vandal Kingdom of North Africa (reigned 530-534 AD)
AE Nummus
Obv: Variation of GEIL or GEILAMIR , pearl-diademed, draped bust right
Rev: Monogram of Gelimer within wreath
Mint: Carthage(?), struck 530-534 AD
Ref: MEC 1, 28-30; BMC Vandals 4-6, Very Rare

(seller's photos)


My edited version of the above, to highlight better the monogram:


Gelimer's monogram:

 

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Wow VK, you have some eye for these kinds of coins. And, as Steve might say, all coins need love. It's good there are those who can specialize in these coins like yourself. I know who to ask if I need help in this era.

 

atta-boy, Jango ... man, those Vandal coins are super expensive (congrats on snaggin' another one)


=> very cool, my coin-friend!!

 

Thanks for the kind words, coin friends! Not to brag but I managed to get it for a song as far as these coins usually go for.

 

A great coin. I have the same attraction to obscure numismatics and mysterious cultures, from which you have to assemble a history with only bits and pieces. Often that history relies heavily on coin evidence.

 

Thank you for the write-up and the coin. Very nice.

It always amazes me that the Vandals essentially disappeared as a distinct ethnic group (or at least a coalescence of ethnic groups) soon after their defeat by the Byzantines in AD 534. These same Vandals had destroyed (an albeit weakened) City of Rome a mere eighty years before.

Thank you,

guy

 

Very Kool VK, nice to see other collectors out there of these different coins. also looks like a brand you put on a beef,the VK ranch brand...

 

Yeah, and in such a short time also. The Vandalic War was basically a curb-stomp in favor of the Byzantines. Not so much against the Ostrogoths but they were eventually defeated too. Justinian totally wiping out two tribes was way better than what any emperor before him achieved with regards to fighting the barbarian tribes. His reconquests are a time of Byzantine history I like to call when "the empire strikes back"

 

Thought I'd also shared my other Vandalic coins:

Under Thrasamund, Hilderic, or Gelimer
AE 4 Nummi
Obv: Personification of Carthage(?) diademed, draped, bust left, holding palm branch
Rev: Bar over N over IIII
Mint: Carthage, struck 498-534 AD
Ref: BMC Vandals 12

 

Unknown/Anonymous
AE Nummus
Obv: Bust facing right
Rev: Palm tree
Mint: Unknown North African mint, 440-490 AD
Ref: BMC Vandals, 68ff

 

Unknown/Anonymous
AE Nummus
Obv: Bust facing right
Rev: Palm tree
Mint: Unknown North African mint, 440-490 AD
Ref: BMC Vandals, 68ff


This one's on Wildwinds

 

A classic VK! Cornering the market

 

what an interesting coin VK. i would have never have guessed what that was (probably would have guessed a zeno coin).

 

Lol right? Who knew how much longer until I'd find another one of these? (this was the first Gelimer monogram for sale that I'd seen in any shape). So I felt like I had to try to snag it for a price I was comfortable with. And I did!

 

Thanks Chrsmat! If it was a Zeno I probably would have gone for it anyways

 

Got alerted to some recent activity on this thread of mine, went to check and noticed I never updated this thread with my own photo of this very interesting coin of mine. I've probably posted the new photo in other threads but my own thread dedicated to this coin feels incomplete without it, so I'll just be leaving it here as well.