Sponsianus - Authentic?

Here are a couple of old CCF threads on the subject, posted back when the story first went mainstream in 2022.

https://goccf.com/t/435477
https://goccf.com/t/435794

I don't think there's anything new come to light about them since. My personal opinion about them - that they may indeed be actually ancient but they certainly are NOT evidence for an otherwise unrecorded "emperor Sponsian" - has not changed.

The main argument against their authenticity is their provenance: they were found in a small hoard of gold coins, including some Gordian III "gold coins" that absolutely, definitely are counterfeits, no question - no-one is postulating another "lost emperor" Gordian IV. No-one has convincingly explained why we should trust the evidence left behind by a proven counterfeiter. That they are cast, rather than struck, is also evidence that the "coins" lack any form of officialness.

The only thing I would add is that, if you de-blunder the "IMP SPONSIANI" inscription of these "Sponsian" coins slightly, you get a legend "IMP CONSTANT..." - Constantine the Great. If one accepts the opinion that these coins are indeed ancient, the one could just as easily postulate that these are "barbarous imitations" of a gold coin of Constantine (just as the others are barbarous imitations of Gordian III coins), with a slightly blundered legend; I certainly find that to be a more credible hypothesis than imagining some barbarian quasi-emperor who found the need to cast (rather than strike) some gold coins, and produce no other coin types.

Oh my gosh, and one of those was actually started by me, I'd simply forgotten about it. Mea culpa.