1 Solidus - Witigis / In the name of Justinian I, 527-565 Star to the right

Witigis seized the Ostrogothic throne in 536 by deposing Theodahad, whose catastrophic diplomatic failures had invited Justinian's Italian campaign under Belisarius. Striking coins in Justinian's name was a political necessity — it projected legitimacy at a moment when Byzantine forces were actively dismantling the kingdom. By 540, Belisarius had taken Ravenna and Witigis himself was captured and transported to Constantinople, ending both the reign and the mint's output of this type.

The star to the right is the diagnostic feature separating this emission from related issues in MEC I, with 122 serving only as a comparative reference — the precise attribution remains contested in the literature.