Details

LOT 190

Anglo-Saxon Merovingian Rhineland - Victory - Gold Tremissis

Circa 530-600 AD. Obv: diademed profile bust right with OHIASTI / ANVSPAVG legend (from DN IVSTINIANVS PE AVG). Rev: Victory standing with VCIOIRIAAVCVSTOM legend having sideways S, retrograde and inverted letters (based upon VICTORIA AVGVSTORVM) and retrograde CON in exergue. Extremely fine, extremely rare.(Gold, 1.38 grams.).

Provenance

Found Petham, Kent, 2011; recorded Early Medieval Corpus and UKDFD Reference No. 32272.

Literature

MEC -; see Prou for similar examples; see EMC 2011.0162 (this coin).

Footnotes

The type is a Barbarian copy of a gold imperial coin of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (527-65), with a standing figure of Victory on the reverse, probably made circa 527-600 AD. The obverse inscription DNIASTIANVSPAVG is fairly closely copied from the coinage of Justinian II, but the inscription on the reverse is more blundered from the VICTORIA AVGVSTORVM (Victory of the Emperors) of the originals. Copies of the gold coinage of Justinian II were produced by various Barbarian peoples (most notably the Merovingians and the Visigoths) and this example is likely to originate from the Rhineland (the Alamanni tribe?) where similar coins have been found in graves at Klepsau and elsewhere.