Barbarous Radiates

group 1

bobbyhelmet I sent you a message so let me know what you think thanks again

PM sent mate - I'll have some answers for the above shortly - gotta run an errand.

I have been following this thread with some interest, but I'm sorry I have no input to help out. I know nothing about these barbarous coins, so I will let bobbyhelmet and those familiar with them help you with identification. My question to you now that you are heavily involved with these is what do you think of barbarous imitations? I've never felt compelled to purchase any I guess because I thought they were too hard to trace back to any particular place or time. Anyway, what do you think now that you own what seems to be a ton of them?

I'll add a bit of context to these coins to give you a better understanding of them.

Most (including me much of the time) refer to them as 'barbarous' or 'barbs' but a better description would be 'unofficial' or 'semi-unofficial'. It is often wrongly thought that they were all made to deceive, made as fakes to defraud people. While a small proportion were certainly made for this the vast majority were not.

These coins were made to alleviate currency shortages when either the Empire couldn't or wouldn't supply outlying areas and also as emergency currency for areas that the Empire gave up on completely and left.

Unofficial coins can be found all over the Empire and throughout the ages but they are particularly common in the 'edge of Empire' areas and in the 3rd and 4th centuries. This is a result of the turmoil and eventual collapse that the Empire suffered in areas during this time.

When the Romans couldn't / wouldn't supply or left an area the locals were in a very difficult situation, their economies could collapse without currency so they had to make it themselves be it in a semi-official or totally unofficial way.

Barbs were very common in the Gallic and Britannic breakaway Empires because administration for new currency was probably either not there at all or no where near as efficient as the official Roman machine.

Dating these coins can be hard - all that can really be said is that the unofficial imitative designs came after the official originals. But was it a day, a week, a year, a decade or even a century - most people can only theorise.

Group 1 - left to right top to bottom (good way to post them BTW)

1. Tetricus II (Legend starts with C PIV), barbarous, COMES AVG reverse, Victory standing left, holding wreath and palmbranch.

2. Tetricus II (Again C PIV legend), official, PROVID AVG reverse, Providentia with baton and cornucopia - This is quite a rare official coin, its not in RIC.

3. Tetricus II (C PIV and no beard as T1 has), barbarous, not sure about the reverse, looks blundered (not really imitating anything), looking at the lettering I would say the die cutter was not a Latin speaker.

4. Victorinus, official, VICTORIA AVG, Victory (you can see her wings) walking left, holding wreath and palmbranch.

5. Tetricus I or II, barbarous, Prob VIRTVS AVG, Virtus standing right, holding spear and shield, which rests on ground. Its been mis-stamped or stamped over an earlier coin.

6. Tetricus I, prob barbarous, Prob HILARITAS AVGG, Hilaritas standing left, holding long branch and cornucopiae.

7. Prob Tetricus I, barbarous, PAX AVG, Pax standing left, holding branch and sceptre.

8. Tetricus I, official, LAETITIA AVGG, Laetitia standing left, holding wreath and anchor.

9. Tetricus II, barbarous, PRINC IVVENT, Tetricus II standing left, holding branch and spear, standard to right.

Googling the reverse inscriptions will show you some pictures of official examples and this site (though not complete) is pretty good:

http://www.gallic-empire.com/coinage.htm

I'm partial to them also; they are one of my favorite Roman coin designs and also my first Roman coin ever was a radiate (a Gallienus).