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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tejas, post: 8104921, member: 84905&quot;]I meant Arles when I wrote Avignon. Arles is much more likely between the two. The Provence had passed to Frankish/Merovingian control in the first phase of the Gothic war under King Witigis (536-540).</p><p><br /></p><p>I think an important observation is that both yours and my Merovingian solidi (and your Burgundian solidus) are all copied from Ostrogothic models.</p><p><br /></p><p>Metlich (The coinage of Ostrogothic Italy, p. 18) writes &quot;For the next decades (after AD 497) ..., the solidus type was fixed, using the &#039;pseudo&#039;-officina A, the PF title, a barbed spear top, an eight rayed star ...&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Given that southern Gaul was under Ostrogothic control (after 507) it is likely that Ostrogothic solidi were known in the region and later used as models for our solidi.</p><p><br /></p><p>Clearly, if the pseudo-officina letter A was copied from the Ostrogothic models it had no meaning on the imitations. However, the additional A in the reverse field of my solidus could point to Arles.</p><p><br /></p><p>So we have a hypothesis for a place (Arles) and a date (after 536).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is another solidus from my collection, which belongs to the group that we are discussing (barbed spear, pseudo-officina A, but note the PP instead of PF, which suggests that the model was a coin from Milan)</p><p><br /></p><p>Obv.: DNANASTA SIV SPPAVC</p><p>Rev.: VICTORI AAVCCCA</p><p>Exergue: COMOD</p><p>Mint: Southern Gaul?</p><p>Weight: 4.43g</p><p>Diameter: 20mm</p><p><br /></p><p>The style is much finer than my other solidus of this type. The legends are basically correct.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1409731[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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