One of my first obsessions in Roman coins was the tiny and oh-so-common cross type AE4s. Not only because of the vague possibility of finding a Galla Placidia or a Hilderic, but also for the simplicity of the design and how it marked the transformation of Rome from an old empire that now had a lot of Christians to an explicitly Christian empire. I ended up parting with most of my ho-hum examples to make room for other things, but to this day I still keep my eyes out for a particularly nice or interesting specimen. I found this in a lot of Vandal-period AE4s At first glance I thought it was just a cross potent with some damage, but on closer inspection I recognized that all arms had the same bend - this wasn't a cross at all but a left-facing swastika (sauwastika ) And since they say "one specimen does not a variety make" I have never seen anything like these before, save for some south Indian imitations, but the style, size, and thickness of these indicate Vandal manufacture, not Indian. I checked the usual references (Wroth and a few more recent hoard analyses I found online) and couldn't find any more swastikas on Vandal (or any other Germanic) coin, although the symbol certainly would have been one they were comfortable with: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika_(Germanic_Iron_Age) Has anyone else spotted anything similar?
Interesting coin. I don’t have anything to add other than I’ve always been interested in the period but I just wish these small coins were better made and survived the centuries leaving us more identifying clues. I have a few, but they’re all a lot cause (worn to just being small metal corroded discs!).
