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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Struck in Britain

350, Lot: 585. Estimate $150.
Sold for $340. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Commemorative Series. AD 330-354. Æ (12mm, 0.92 g, 6h). Imitating Urbs Roma type. Unofficial mint in East Anglia. Struck circa AD 335-339. VRBS [ROMA], helmeted and mantled bust of Roma left / She-wolf standing left, head right, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; two stars above; •PLG. A. Marsden, “Contemporary Imitations of Constantine’s Wolf & Twins Coinage” in Treasure Hunting, June-July 2001, p. 29, style 1/a. For prototype, cf. RIC VII 247. Near EF, brown patina. Rare and interesting.


Ex Nether Compton Hoard.

Imitations had circulated in widely in Britain during the Julio-Claudian period and the time of the Gallic Empire, but these were generally produced in Gaul and Spain. Certain imitations of the mid-330s, however, can be definitively shown to have been produced in Britain. Through hoard evidence and site finds, the tangled web of this unofficial coinage can begin to be unwoven. Adrian Marsden has used stylistic linkages to identify two major centers of production, along with three smaller locations. These unofficial mints apparently produced a great volume of counterfeit coinage, as die duplicates are scarce.