Barborous Ancient Romans

I think the a limiting factor in collecting such is that there's no catalog for them. Under those circumstances each specimen is a standalone item without a certain provenance or origin.

I had a substantial collection of Roman barbarous at one time. Though I no longer collect, I am still very interested in the subject.

While there is no handy collector manual, there is a body of literature on imitations of Roman coins, mostly academic. A few suggestions to start: http://esty.ancients.info/imit/imitationrefs.html. One caveat, older literature (pre-1960) often speculates on a very late (dark age) date for radiate minims. This notion was abandoned 60 years ago and there is now consensus that Roman imitations are nearly always contemporary with their prototypes.

Cataloguing usually consists of identifying the prototype and then looking for similar examples in specialist publications.

Thanks everyone, I'll try and post a pic of mine when I have a chance. @spence , I did try the search but it came up with no matches.
I'm not sure why, but I do like them although often poorly made,I find it nice to have a few that most won't have in their collections

I collect unofficial Siscian VLPP's and have a page on barbarous coinage of the 4th century.

http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/barb2/

That to me looks like official coinage....what am I looking at to deferenciate between barbarous and official? My barbarous coins are very obvious

Barbarous radiates are fun, but I agree they can never be "collected" in the sense that other coins can, simply because 99% of them are unique one-offs, and many are simply too degenerate to even tell what they're supposed to be.

Personally, I accumulate all the ones I come across in lots, although I don't specifically seek them out unless they are something truly special. Some of my favorite examples of something "truly special":

- Types with a unique reverse - I'd love to see the celtic horse reverses Ben is referring to! CNG sold a lot with unique reverse types several years ago, long before I even collected ancients:
https://www.cNGCoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=94518

- Types that are in exceptionally good style, possibly by a former mint worker

- Types that aren't just Tetricus I/II, Divo Claudio, or common 4th century type (VLPP, FTR etc)

- Types that are extraordinarily small or degenerate

Some of my favorites that I've picked up over the years:

I theorize this one might be a stab at a Gallienus Zoo type?


A decent attempt at a Gallienus, with an indecipherable reverse


A mostly literate Victorinus with a portrait that looks nothing like him / Salus, but there's no snake and she's about to do a Kamehameha. And all the S's are huge and sideways!


A really nice and fully literate Tetricus II - I'm not even 100% sure this is barbarous?


A very rare coin of Tetricus II as Augustus - These are rare as barbarous coins, and a few (as in fewer than 10) examples are known that might be official - It's not entirely clear whether Tetricus II was ever made Augustus


Tetricus I with Apollo reverse - not a type normally seen


Also Tetricus I, but with the Tetricus II Priestly Implements reverse (This one is from @Ben)


Some fun highly degenerate types



4th century types

Constantine? Two captives with standards


An assortment of fun tiny (6-10mm) Fallen Horseman types also from @Ben




One not so tiny


Some barbarous AE4 cross types (I used to collect these too, but recently thinned out the herd to just the best/favorites)





And my most recent acquisition, a Celtic(?) copy of a first century Roman As or Dupondius; not enough detail to identify the original, but I suspect it's Claudius.

These are 3 of mine . Very rough barbarous coins but I love them for their uniqueness.
They are all UK metal detecting finds. If you have any thoughts on any of them I would be very interested to hear them.


















I apologize for my photo skills....or lack of them. They are very hard to photo on a phone!!

At one time, long ago, I was a big fan of barbarous radiates. From major numismatic libraries I sought out and photocopied the relevant literature. Eventually, I made a web site on ancient imitations, of which this page web page show some Gallo-Roman barbarous radiates:

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/imit/Ba...adiates.html

I did not finish it off with descriptions, but it has some good examples.