Inspired by the White Whale featured thread and by its mention of the Gepids, I have been looking at my Great Migration coins, a collection I started years ago, but was diverted from - by other numismatical green pastures. I don't have Odoacer or Ravenna coins, but here are four Gepid coins, that according to the article by Alain Gennari (2016, on Academia.edu) should be considered Ostrogoth. These are sometimes called half siliquas, and they date from about 508-528. As you see, they are often very brittle and in fact a little piece broke off when handling them - that was one of the reasons I was put off collecting these types: they are badly made, very frail, often worn (well, not these tiny silver coins) and very small. As you see, all carry the name of Anastasius, the emperor in the East. They were minted in Sirmium, now Srem, not far from Belgrade. They weigh between 0.4 and 0.8 gr. And then there were the Vandals. A warlike people, they left their trail through all of Europe in a few turbulent centuries before all but disappearing. Possibly they came from southern Scandinavia, but they were in what's now Poland in the second century AD and made a Grand Tour through Europe, ending up in Carthago in 435 AD. 99 years later, they were crushed by the Byzantine general Belisarius. What was left of their soldiers was incorporated into the Byzantine army. As a people, they disappeared. Vandals. Gaiseric or Huneric, about 470-480. Pseudo imperial coinage. AR siliqua in the name of Honorius. Pseudo-Ravenna = Carthago. Obv. Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust to the right. DN HONORIVS P F AVG (not much left on this coin). Rev. Rome, holding a spear, sitting to the left on a cuirass, with Victoria on a globe. VRBS ROIIA. In exergue: RVPS. 14.5 mm, 1.7 gr. Vandals, king Gunthamund (484-496). AE nummus, Carthage. 10 mm, 0.79 gr. Obv: Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Gunthamund right. Rev: cross within wreath. 0.79 gr. I was taken aback when this coin came in, so small, but so ugly and menacing. Doesn't he look like a vandal caught in the act?
Pellinore, thanks for an excellent article with great photos. I've seen numerous examples of Gepid coinage with chips but never realized how fragile they are. Have you ever taken a pair of micrometers & measured the thickness or piece of a Gepid coin ? And double thanks for the link to the Alain Gennari article. It's an amazing study with a wealth of information. I'll have to read it a couple more times to digest all the info. You're right about the Gunthamund nummus, he's a scary looking dude...
Kind of an old thread, but if you're still wondering, I think (pretty sure) the Vict. coin is a Sri Lanka imitation. Cool story re them, worth looking into.
I don't think so... wrong style and wrong size, I'd say. I expect seth77 has it right, the coin is probably Vandal. Here are a couple south Indian imitations: And a Vandal coin, overstruck on an official SALVS REIPVBLICAE:
Considering that the lot looks north-african, Vandal is a distinct possibility, and if Vandal likely Thrasamund victory and wreath type. Or a local (Berber?) imitation.
I'm with Severus Alexander, the Sri Lanka imitations are very distinct: they are thin and quite clear for their portraits: loosely drawn, slightly caricatural emperor's portraits. There's the emperor's occasional smile, and there's also the greenish haze, and the thin fabric... the South Indian Roman coins are very recognizable.
Incidentally, I think this coin from one of Steve Album's sales last year is a die match to yours: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6689513
The coins of the mint of Sirmium in the 6th century is a special interest of mine. I have 85 Siliquae, including 16 of the extremely rare Half-Siliquae (which is almost all of the Half-Siliquae known to exist so far). I provide again a link to an article I have written on these coins, which may help to shed some light on this mysterious series: (99+) (PDF) The "Sirmium Group" - an overview | Dirk Faltin - Academia.edu The Gepids or Gepidae were an East Germanic people, who resided in Pannonia and who held control over Sirmium at different points in time, which was located at the very edge of their lands. The Gepids never entered the Roman Empire and were largely unfamiliar with monetary systems apart from gold Solidi, which they sought as raw material. Since the fall of the Hunnic confederation, the region around Sirmium was in constant turmoil. Trade collapsed and small coinage disappeared. However, sometime around AD 500 things stabilized and trade took off once again. This may be related to the change of control over Sirmium from a Gepidic warlord to a Gothic Comes in AD 504. In any case, the need for small change increased and silver was minted once again in Sirmium. Since silver coinage had all but disappeared in the eastern Roman Empire, the people of Sirmium turned to issues from the mint of Mediolanum (Milan) as models for their coins, even copying the MD mintmark (as can be seen on the first of the four coins at the start of the tread). Hence, their Quarter-Siliquae must be views as imitations. The mint output must have been sizable as attested by the wide variety of styles and dies. In the 530s the Goths were forces to relinguish control over Sirmium and a Gepidic ruler took the opportunity to retake control of the city. Minting continued under Gepidic overlordship with coins recognizing the change of control in Constantinople to Justinian and later to Justin II. There is a possibility that rulers such as Turisint, who came to power in AD 548, modified the design of the coins to show their monogram. In addition, special, independent designs were introduced in the 540s and 550s for reasons that are unknown to us. In any case, what started as pure imitations developed into an independent coinage. In any case, the East Romans were, however, unhappy with Gepidic control over Sirmium and encouraged animosities with the Langobards (another Germanic people) to keep Gepidic power in checks. In 567 a force of Langobards and Avars overran the Gepidic kingdom and killed their last king Cunimund. Alboin, the leader of the Langobards, took Cunimund's daughter Rosamund as his wife and forced her to drink from a cup, which he had made from her father's skull. The Langobards and the remnants of the Gepids moved west and left Pannonia to the Awars. Sirmium held out against the Avars a few years longer, perhaps to 579 or 582, but mint activity will have seized sometime around the late 560s or early 570s. The Half-Siliquae are an even bigger riddle. They make no reference to Gothic coinage. Instead they proudly display the sigle SMR for Sirmium and are, other than the Quarter-Siliquae, not imitations but independent issues. Minting of these coins may well predate the arrival of the Goths in AD 504, but we don't know. All existing examples refer to Anastasius. The names of his successors don't appear on Half-Siliquae. The issue was probably small and short-lived. Best Dirk PS My Sirmium Siliquae are all unbroken, but it is true that broken specimens have come up on Ebay and in auctions in significant numbers. I think this is partly due to two reasons: 1) the coins are rather thin and 2) people are searching for these coins and other valuables with metal detectors, smashing them when they try to dig them up.
