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Message:: [QUOTE="dltsrq, post: 7772851, member: 75482"]Consider the so-called 'barbarous radiates', many of which are extremely crude. Once upon a time, they were thought to represent a British 'dark ages' coinage. Philip Hill even declared them to be the coins of "Hengist and Horst with their Jutes"! Then at the Verulamium Theater site in the UK, a hoard of tiny, crude radiate minimi was found in a sealed archaeological context, buried below a pediment known to have been laid before AD 300. Based on the find, Hill publicly recanted and the idea that most late-3rd and 4th century imitations are contemporary with their prototypes has borne out in hoard finds across the continent. Yes, some VLPP imitations are very crude. Others are very good and according to Bastien, have sometimes been under-counted in hoards because of their quality. There is indeed something to be said for the fact that waves of imitation tend to be centered in the provinces. Not only was the coinage supply more difficult to maintain in far-flung regions amid the cycle of repeated reform and demonetization, but the long arm of the law in times of trouble was not always long enough. The persistence of the problem seems not to have been so much a matter of official tolerance but rather the inability of the central authorities to do much about it.[/QUOTE]