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1 Quinarius - Imitating an Uncertain Ruler
| Issuer | Uncertain Germanic tribes |
|---|---|
| Year | 290-325 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.14 g |
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| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Crude laureate and draped bust of an uncertain ruler facing right, rendered in a barbarous imitative style characteristic of Germanic tribal coinage. The effigy shows simplified facial features with a pronounced laurel wreath, and the drapery of the shoulder is roughly executed. A fragmentary Latin legend surrounds the bust in the field, reading T - ATI, likely a garbled transliteration of an original imperial Roman inscription. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Additional information |
Germanic imitative gold coinage of this period occupied a complex functional space — produced by tribes without a mint infrastructure yet requiring prestige objects that carried Roman monetary weight and appearance. These pieces were not struck to deceive Romans but to circulate among Germanic elites for whom Roman gold carried inherent social and political value independent of its issuing authority. The prototype is unidentified, which is itself diagnostic: the copyist was working at sufficient remove from the original that the design degraded beyond attribution.
The 3.14g weight suggests the maker was still targeting the Roman quinarius standard rather than free-styling the flan.