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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Trachy Enjoyer, post: 6408655, member: 118358&quot;]It was the right of the emperor to strike golden coins with his face on them. This tradition was up held for at least a decent while by most barbaric tribes. Gundobald and Theodoric minted gold coins with their monogram on the reverse and the first Barbaric king on the obverse was a Merovingian (I am forgetting his name). The first large scale production of minting with a barbarian king occurred under Leovigild. Technically Theodoric struck his face on gold coinage for his famous medallion in 503 AD but this was a one time ceremonial piece. </p><p><br /></p><p>I suspect deference to the East played a large role in why barbarians did not mint their own portrait on coins. The people in the 5th century had no real recollection of a time when gold coinage was struck with someone other than an imperial family member on the obverse. It would conversely be breaking this long followed tradition to put a &quot;barbarian&quot; on the obverse of a coin, rather than following some sort of idea where the ruler, who ever they were, should be on the obverse of coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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