Extremely Rare Early Visigothic Silver

217, Lot: 482. Estimate $300. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VISIGOTHS, Gaul. Time of Athaulf - Theodoric I. Circa 415-425. AR Siliqua (13mm, 1.37 g, 12h). In the name of Roman Emperor Honorius. Narbonne(?) mint. D N HONORI-VS [P] F ΛVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / VICTOR[I]-Λ ΛVGGG, Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and spear; PSRV. Reinhart, Münzen -; RIC X 3703 var. (ΛVGG on rev.); MEC 1, -; Hunter, Byzantine -. VF, toned, soft strike, minor lamination on obverse. Extremely rare, this variety with ΛVGGG unpublished.

Ex Triton XI (8 January 2008), lot 1061.

In his introduction to the reign of Honorius in RIC (p. 135), J.P.C. Kent notes that these siliquae with PSRV mintmark were struck by the Visigoths in Gaul, probably at Narbonne. Issues are known in the name of Priscus Attalus (RIC 3701-2) and Honorius (RIC 3703), the former with reverse legend ending both ΛVGG and ΛVGGG, but the latter only with ΛVGG. The present coin is the first attested in Honorius' name with ΛVGGG on the reverse. In his 1989 address to the Royal Numismatic Society (J.P.C. Kent, "The President's Address," NC 149 [1989], pp. i-xvi), Kent noted that the Visigoths minted the issues in the name of Attalus around 415, during an attempt to resurrect their candidate for Western emperor (ibid., pp. iv and xv). It is uncertain whether the issues in the name of Honorius were struck before, during, or after these, but the two coinages are certainly are related. Kent dated all of the Visigothic coinage in the name of Honorius to c. 418-423 (ibid., p. xv), but the earlier date should be 415, based on the possible dates he set out for this issue. During this period, the successive kings of the Visigoths were Athaulf (410-415), Sigeric (415), Wallia (415-419), and Theodoric I (419-451). All of the silver issues of the Visigoths in Gaul are extremely rare.