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Nummus - Thrasamund Carthage mint, staurogram

Issuer Vandal Kingdom
Year 496-523
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Currency Denarius (440-534)
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Reverse description Central device consists of a staurogram (Tau-Rho monogram, an early Christian Christological symbol), formed by a tall cross with the letter Rho looped over the top of the vertical shaft. Two small pellets or dots flank the lower portion of the cross, one to each side, within a plain flat field. The type is entirely without inscription or exergual text. The reverse die is irregularly centered and slightly off-flan, consistent with the small module hammered nummi of Vandal Carthage.
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

Thrasamund ruled the Vandal Kingdom for nearly three decades, maintaining an unusually sophisticated diplomatic posture toward Constantinople — exchanging embassies, arranging dynastic marriages, and carefully avoiding the outright theological confrontations that had plagued his predecessors. His mint at Carthage continued producing small bronze nummi that functioned within a monetary system still partly calibrated to late Roman norms, despite the kingdom's political independence.

The staurogram on this issue — a pre-Christian monogram of Christ predating the more familiar chi-rho — had deep roots in North African ecclesiastical usage and appears here likely as a continuity marker rather than a confessional statement, given that the Vandal ruling class remained staunchly Arian throughout Thrasamund's reign.