1 Aureus - Imitating Diocletian, 284-305

Barbarian imitations of Roman aurei are rarely precise forgeries — they are more often expressions of Roman monetary prestige filtered through non-Roman hands. This piece imitates Diocletian's coinage, a ruler who reorganized the entire Roman currency system with his ill-fated Edict on Maximum Prices in 301 AD and the introduction of the reformed aureus at a theoretical 60 to the pound. Germanic tribes along the Rhine and Danube frontiers accumulated Roman gold through payment, plunder, and subsidy, then reproduced it locally — not to deceive Roman merchants, but to move value within their own networks.

The Calicó Hispania reference is comparative, not exact, which is typical of this class.