Details

LOT 3255

Ostrogoths, Municipal coinage of Rome AE 20 Nummi or Half Follis. Time of Athalaric, AD 526-534.

Rome mint. [IN]VIC[TA ROMA], draped bust of Roma to right, wearing crested helmet, pendant earring and necklace / She-wolf standing to left, head turned back to watch the two infants Romulus and Remus suckling; two stars flanking I above, [XX (mark of value)] below. Hahn, MIB 71c (Theoderic); Kraus 29; Metlich 84b; MEC 1, 97-8. Good Fine.(8.54gr, 22mm, 2h.).

Provenance

Private collection, acquired 1980-1985.

Footnotes

Although the most noticeable of the bronze coins used in Italy under the Ostrogoths are the countermarked asses and other earlier types, in fact these did not make up the bulk of the copper coinage in circulation at that time. Under Odovacar and the Ostrogoths the Roman Senate enjoyed a brief Indian summer of power; amongst its activities was a revival of the ancient Senatorial privilege of minting in bronze which, after a very brief issue in the name of Zeno, then consisted of types purely Roman in character making no reference to either imperial or royal authority. This revived Senatorial coinage features the helmeted bust of Roma along with the ironic obverse inscription INVICTA ROMA, and recalls the ancient silver coins of the Republic.
Coming to an end in AD 535/6, when it was briefly replaced by the portrait coins of Theodahad, after the occupation of Rome by the forces of Belisarius it was in turn replaced by a regular 'Byzantine' imperial coinage in the name of Justinian in 537. When Rome again fell under Ostrogothic control and the mint was reopened in 549, the coinage issued was purely royal and Ostrogothic in character, and so this series may therefore be rightfully described as the final issue of coinage struck by the ancient Romans in their own name.