Æ In the name of Gratian

These imitative bronzes, struck by Germanic groups in the decades following Adrianople, were produced by peoples who had gained direct access to Roman coinage as federates, mercenaries, and opportunists picking over a disintegrating frontier economy. The prototypes were official Theodosian-era issues, but the copying was unsystematic — different tribal workshops, no central authority, no mint discipline.

Gratian himself was murdered in 383, so his name on coins struck well into the fifth century reflects institutional inertia rather than political allegiance.