Catalog
1 Aureus - Imitating Marcus Aurelius, 161-180
| Issuer | Uncertain Germanic tribes |
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| Year | 250-301 |
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| Diameter | 18 mm |
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| Obverse description | Crude laureate bust of the emperor facing right, rendered in a barbarous imitative style with heavy, irregular die work. The portrait, loosely derived from official Roman coinage of Marcus Aurelius, is surrounded by a degenerate Latin legend that has become largely illegible through successive copying. The fields show pronounced surface irregularities consistent with primitive hammered production. A suspension hole is pierced near the top of the flan, suggesting the piece was used as a pendant or personal ornament. |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Germanic imitations of Roman aurei circulated widely beyond the frontier as prestige objects and diplomatic gifts rather than transactional currency. This piece copies types of Marcus Aurelius — an emperor whose coinage remained in active imitation long after his death, partly because his reign coincided with substantial Roman payments to frontier tribes designed to purchase short-term peace. The irony that tribes receiving those payments then reproduced the coins is not lost on specialists.
The Arslan corpus leaves this type unassigned, which itself signals something: these frontier gold pieces resist systematic classification, their die links and tribal attributions still contested.