1 Denarius Circle, circle

Obverse description	Highly stylized, barbaric effigy facing right, rendered in a degenerate provincial style derived from late Roman imperial prototypes. The head is surrounded by an elaborate arrangement of curved, flame-like or foliate elements radiating outward, occupying the entire field. The lower portion features a cluster of pellets suggesting a chin or neck detail. The overall workmanship reflects a strongly abstracted, non-Classical artistic tradition characteristic of Gothic imitative coinage.
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Mintage	ND (275-325)
Additional information	The so-called "Goths from Taman" issues remain among the least understood barbarous coinages of the late Roman periphery. Produced somewhere in the Taman Peninsula region — the ancient Tmutarakan area bridging the Kuban steppe and the eastern Crimea — these billon pieces circulated among Gothic groups who had settled around the Cimmerian Bosporus following the great migrations of the mid-third century. The striking authority was almost certainly not a state in any formal sense, but rather a tribal or mercantile arrangement piggybacking on the prestige of Roman denominations. The fifty-year date range reflects genuine scholarly uncertainty, not imprecision in record-keeping.