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Tremissis - Sico
| Issuer | Principality of Benevento |
|---|---|
| Year | 817-832 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Frontal facing bust of Prince Sico rendered in the Lombard-Byzantine style, occupying the central field. The effigy displays a schematized bearded face with large stylized eyes, surmounted by a diademed crown adorned with a row of beaded pellets. The bust is draped and cuirassed, with cross-pommée details visible at the shoulders. A circular Latin legend surrounds the bust, reading SICO P - RINCE. The overall execution is characteristic of early medieval Beneventan hammered coinage, with bold, somewhat crude relief typical of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Sico seized the principality of Benevento in 817 by blinding and deposing his predecessor Grimoald IV — a characteristically Lombard method of neutralizing a rival without technically committing regicide. His coinage continued the debased gold tremissis tradition inherited from the Lombard kingdom, which itself had absorbed late Byzantine monetary practice after the Lombard conquest of much of Italy in the sixth and seventh centuries. The electrum composition reflects the chronic gold shortage afflicting southern Italian mints throughout this period, not a deliberate alloy choice.