These Iberian imitations of Republican semisses circulated during and after Rome's drawn-out pacification of the peninsula, filling a genuine small-denomination vacuum in regions where official Roman supply was inconsistent. Local workshops copied the type freely, with no authorization and varying fidelity to the prototype — which is precisely why attribution remains contested and mint assignment nearly impossible for most specimens.
These Iberian imitations of Republican semisses circulated during and after Rome's drawn-out pacification of the peninsula, filling a genuine small-denomination vacuum in regions where official Roman supply was inconsistent. Local workshops copied the type freely, with no authorization and varying fidelity to the prototype — which is precisely why attribution remains contested and mint assignment nearly impossible for most specimens.