Barbarous Imitations

At 16mm I'm glad to see you have not closed the door on the possibility that it is not barbarous but merely poorly preserved. As for your search it would help to narrow things down to know what you have checked. Are you looking for online references only or does print work too?

Have you looked in RIC? BMCRE? RSC? All three of these have extensive listings of the coins of the Tetrici and related.

My point was that before you can claim it is barbarous you have to rule out that it is merely a poorly preserved issue of the empire. My understanding is that this has not yet been done, because the OP was asking about references for coin listings. Did I misunderstand that? Was the OP only looking for studies of barbarous coins on the assumption that this cannot be an issue of the empire?

for most of this coins , you are only sure they have been struck in Gallia .Sometimes you can find a nice coin you can identificate .This coins are normally a little bit smaller than the official coins :15/17 mm and 19/20 mm .There is also a difference in the weight , I have coins from 1.2 gr to 2.38 gr .albert

ps : the obverse is IMP C TETRICUS P F AUG , on the reverse ,you have an X just before the face .

Lot arrived in the mail, containing not one but two barbarous cross coins:

1 - 10mm, 0.52g



This one is really neat, given both the extremely simple style, and the fact that the legend is just "IYIYI". I don't know if the same applies to the reverse, or if the engraver simply tried to replicate a wreath.

Second I am 99% sure is barbarous

10mm, 0.92g



Just look at that portrait! Theodosius III must be doing his giraffe impression again.

That is indeed a barbarous issue, after Tetricus. I have a nicer one from the same tribe somewhere...I have many many barbarous coins that I've cleaned, but as far as I know, no one has completed a reference for them and there isn't enough information on find locations to tell where most came from. I tried hard to get find locations for as many as possible, but people just dont care about the tiny finds and so nearly all of them are simply 'found in the UK' - perhaps there never will be a reference guide for them.

The cross issues are even worse. You can barely tell the barbarous from the real ones, and even the official issues arent properly catalogued yet, probably because of the wild variation and lack of surviving legends.

I think the distinction between imitation or counterfeit would be the answer to the question, "What would happen if the minter was caught in his own jurisdiction?" Counterfeiters are unauthorized and in it to make a profit; imitative coins are issued officially, piggybacking on the popularity of a more renowned currency. I would consider a currency official when it does not attempt to imitate, but rather portray an actual, autonomous ruler.

Given the apparent popularity (and price!) of attributed Vandal coins, I really am surprised at how little effort has gone into analyzing archaeological finds, as Ben mentioned. I would suspect the matter to be complicated by international trade of these crude, illiterate pieces; just because a coin is found in the southern UK does not necessarily mean it was not minted by a Germanic tribe.

This latest lot contained several official cross AE4's and a few that are probably too poorly preserved to call. All had the same bluish patina, which makes me tempted to say that they all circulated and were stashed together.

I bought a small collection of FEL TEMPS recently which contained a couple of Barbarous imitations of galley types.

Both are in fairly nice style.

Constantius II - AE2 - Barbarous imitation of Trier

Obv:- CONSTANT-IVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped & cuirassed bust right
Rev:- FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Emperor standing left, in a galley; Phoenix on a globe in right hand and holding labarum in left hand; Victory at the tiller of the galley right
Minted in Trier; (//TRS),



Constans - AE2 - Barbarous imitation of RIC VIII Trier 215

Obv:- D N CONSTA-NS P F AVG, Pearl iademed, draped, cuirassed bust right
Rev:- FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Emperor standing left, in a galley; Phoenix on a globe in right hand and holding labarum in left hand; Victory at the tiller of the galley right.
Minted in Trier; (//TRS), A.D. 348-350
Reference:- Barbarous imitation. cf RIC VIII Trier 215



Martin