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Nummus - Imitation of Gunthamund
| Issuer | Vandal Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 530-550 |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Bust of emperor facing right, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed, in the late Roman imperial tradition. The effigy is rendered in a somewhat barbaric style characteristic of Vandal imitative coinage. The surrounding legend is largely illegible, retaining only vestigial traces of a Latin inscription derived from earlier imperial prototypes. |
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| Reverse description | A prominent Chi-Rho (Christogram) monogram occupies the central field, with stylised petal-like ornaments radiating into each of the four quadrants formed by the arms of the cross. The entire design is enclosed within a wreath border, a common decorative framing device on late Vandal nummi. The reverse is struck in a bold, if somewhat crude, hammered style consistent with post-imperial North African mint production. |
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| Additional information |
Gunthamund died in 496, making these posthumous imitations — struck decades after his reign — a product of Vandal monetary pragmatism rather than any commemorative intent. By the 530s, the kingdom was under existential pressure from Justinian's reconquest, and the Vandals were minting crude small bronzes that increasingly lost fidelity to their prototypes. This piece falls into that degraded terminal phase.
Belisarius defeated the Vandal forces at Ad Decimum and Tricamarum in 533–534, effectively ending the kingdom. Coins of this type were almost certainly still in circulation when Carthage fell.