Antoninianus - Tetricus II HILARITAS; Barbarous imitation

Tetricus II was elevated to Caesar under his father's Gallic Empire around 270 AD, and the pair were defeated by Aurelian at the Battle of Châlons in 274 — ending the breakaway western realm entirely. The legitimate coinage of Tetricus II was itself already debased and irregular enough that distinguishing official from imitative product is, in many cases, a matter of scholarly convention rather than hard evidence. At 0.63g, this piece sits well below even the degraded official standard, placing it firmly in the imitative tradition that flooded northwestern Gaul and Britain during the 270s.