Radiate - Tetricus I SALVS AVGG, Barbarous imitation

Barbarous radiates imitating the coins of Tetricus I flooded northwestern Gaul and Britain after the collapse of the Gallic Empire in 274, when Aurelian's absorption of the breakaway state left a currency vacuum in regions accustomed to locally produced antoniniani. Local workshops — some barely workshops at all — churned out increasingly degraded copies to meet demand, each generation of die-cutting drifting further from the Roman originals. This piece, at under a gram, sits at the smaller end of the spectrum even for barbarous radiates, suggesting a late or particularly peripheral production.