Antoninianus - Tetricus I PAX AVG; Barbarous imitation

Barbarous radiates imitating Tetricus I flooded northwestern Gaul and Britain in the early 270s, filling a vacuum left when the Gallic Empire collapsed and legitimate coinage from Cologne dried up. The volume of these imitations was extraordinary — estimates suggest they may have outnumbered official issues in some British hoards by a ratio of three to one. At 1.69g, this piece sits toward the lighter end of the spectrum, consistent with the progressive weight debasement seen as individual copyists worked further from any official model.