Rand

Double strikes are not uncommon on official coins of Anastasius and most of the Byzantine period. A picture of some official die duplicates (triplicates) I have that include a double strike.

@Kaleun96 I am afraid I have not specifically paid attention to this type. There were so many coins in so many trays. Initially, I was checking every coin, recalling NvmisForvms discussions. Later, I focused more on coins of my interest and I could have easily missed it. If @akeady is there is two weeks he might be able to spot.

The Barber was the first museum collection that allowed me to visit their study room. They showed me all their Anastasius gold coins and even allowed to download their photos for personal use (this was long before they put all these coins online). Their online collection now has a note I made about a solidus being not from an imperial mint. I wish all museums were like the Barber.

Congratulations on a nice coin from the epoch-changing period! It is official, from Constantinople. Their artistic die quality fluctuates during the period, and yours is a good one. Below is a variety that deviates further from the 'typical' officials - the only reverse die with Victoria's wing covering Globus Cruciger (as far as I could find). It would be good to know the provenance of your tremissis. Roma Numismatics Limited. The Byzantine Collection. 18/07/2023

This is as close as I have heard someone get to the storage of their main collection! The storage might be separate from the main building. Any information on the right contact to get access to the collections would be immensely appreciated. I am interested in a small number of coins only (Anastasian gold). I am happy to pay a fee, be there after dusk and before dawn, and hop on one leg if necessary.

If it was NOT looted and available for sale, it would probably still make no difference for most of us. The justice system will find the rightful owner and return the coin to them. What matters to others is the circumstance and location of the find... unless this information is a secret also covered by the international agreement.

@NewStyleKing Glad you were there. I thought you may be intersted and took photos of some coins that I though were New Style, but you must have seen them all.

I do not know, not an expert. The coins I know were real. Generally (most coins were Greek as expected) the coins were at very high preservation state, often with very bright silver - thoughs of harsh cleaning were crossing my mind.

This was my first visit to the Numismatic Museum of Athens. I have tried to access records and, ideally, photos of gold coins of Anastasius I in their collection for years. The expectations are high, with the 600,000 coin collection that holds all ancient coins from the country, where private ownership of ancient coins is illegal. The museum did not reply to my email asking for access to the coins. Irrespective, this is a really nice museum with very friendly staff, who sadly could not advise about access to the main holdings. The numerous coins presented over the two flours is outstanding and highly recommended. PS. I have seen several coins of Anastasius (one side each). I hope the museum will one day allow access to its extensive holdings.

Sadly, same from my side. Fourtunately I saved records of my interest, but still kept trying it again as have hoped they would upload both sides of their coins (e.g. as below). I tried links to the individual coins and they also do not respond.

This is an amazing collection! Congratulations! It would be good to keep it a start of a lasting thread on this topic.

I am afraid this was information that I got. I did not ask questions myself. There was a specific comment on the sudden use of Byzantine silver, which could be due to the changes in economic relationships, now involving smaller agricultural landowners and other increases in trade, which needed silver rather than gold coinage, and it became profitable to melt chunky silver items. There was a comment about a large amount of stored Byzantine silver items when several big silver plates could provide silver for c. 10,000 coins. The sudden trend of melting Byzantine silver may explain why many coins were produced from Byzantine rather than mixed silver. This does not explain what happened with recycled Roman silver. The overall numbers of the produced coins were estimated as very large, but not in millions as was mentioned on our thread (I am no expert in these coins to have a strong personal opinion).

Today, I had a chance to get further insights into this study, which was presented and discussed by the author, Professor Rory Naismith, at the 9th International Symposium in Early Medieval Coinage in Cambridge. The interesting points from the discussion were: - The team did have information about old Roman silver from other analyses and the reported coins matched Byzantine (e.g., Syria) and not old Roman silver. - A small amount of gold in the alloy is explained by melting gold-plated silver. - There is an ongoing study by another group showing that Saxon leaders sent soldiers to Byzantine for training (which is relevant to my interest in whether mercenaries from the British Islands could have participated in Theoderic’s Italian wars). - There were economics-driven reasons why Byzantine silver was not melted for coins earlier, and gold continental and later English coins were used instead. I feel more convinced now that the silver was from Byzantine.

Same, with me. But I feel the top die could have be copied or even both produced by the same hands.

Just come across another one. Not certain, but could be from the same dies as the plated coin above. Attributed to Merovingians (reasons not stated). https://coinweek.com/coinweek-ancient-coin-series-coinage-of-the-merovingians/

This coin is high on my wish list. Several times, I thought it was close, and it slipped away. I would also like other Ostrogothic kings to follow the example. Theodahat was hardly a king to be awarded a distinction. It would be great to own a portrait coin of Theodoric or Baduila. Given the existence of the Senigallia Medallion, other donative Theodoric’s coins may surface.

I suppose coins are not guilty of crimes of their owners. Collect coins, not slabs … not the sinners who owed them.

This fourree tremissis with a similar design was found in Archlebov in Moravia. This further reduces the possibility of its gold version being minted by the Byzantines in Spain and it makes it more likely to be produced in the Allemani territory or even further east in Langobardian territory. Zeman, Tomáš. “Zeman, T. 2022: Zlaté a Stříbrné Mince Doby Stěhování Národů Na Moravě - Nové Objevy i Revize Nálezového Fondu.” Folia numismatica 36/1 (2022): 21–49.

This is an interesting post. For some reason, I picture the process involving heating the flans and potentially a basin or pot to cool them. The coins I collect, which are from a later period, have an irregular rim shape. One side is often flattened, as if it was held by tongues. The location of this flatness varies between each coin, suggesting it was part of the coin minting process, not part of the die. Please see the same die pair, I have more examples if needed (2-3 coins per die pair only). What is interesting, the impression on the rim never affects the rest of the flan inside. This may mean that a very hot and soft flan was placed on the anvil by tongues leaving the tongue impression. This was followed by a strike and after this metal was harder, so that the coin could be removed withough damaging the image. However, this would also mean that the rim would be present before the coin was struck and not part of the die. I cannot workout how this could work or if see this all wrong? 


Italian is fine with all the technologies we have. Finding those publications was not easy, though. I remember 'hunting' them in auctions, like a couple shown below. It was hard to find them, and with auction fees/postage, the cost of an article was like that of a book. Hopefully, more publications are coming online now.

Theodat's follises are indeed very nice and hard to get. @Tejas may well have the largest privately own set of them. I was a bit surprised to find that Arslan & Metlich managed to find 187 of them in their die study 20 years ago. With 20 obverse dies and 64 reverse dies known at the time, it must have been a considerable issue. I wish there was a more recent analysis.

I suppose the "not suitable for US import" statement makes this sale an important provenance. While non-US customers may be able to buy the coins at discounted price, the coins may be forever doomed for a future sale to the US or even bringing personal collections there.

These are certainly interesting contexts. I hope (from a collector's perspective) that a small number of coins was still produced in Britain in 410-660, perhaps after 500, when there was some trade with the continent and some Frankish settlers were moving to Kent. Anglo-Saxons may even have participated in Italian Ostogothic wars and wars in Gaul in the next decades. This would explain some very rare gold coins of the period found in England. Any local produce would follow that of Franks/Visigoths (so gold coins) and thus may be difficult to distinguish. Still, a number of coins found in England are not known from the continent.

This makes sense to me, but would lead to a different conclusion for the study: the coins were minted from old recycled silver rather than Byzantine silver. It would be good to see analyses of Italian silver of the period which would also be recycled and contemporary eastern coin silver from Persia.

The accepted refining processes could have influenced the metal content, potentially leading to contaminants. The analysis heavily relies on isotopes of lead, which is not the primary coin metal—I am unsure if some of it could have been introduced/lost during the alloy preparation. Were there any technological changes in silver refinery/minting practised around the same time the Melle became active, which could have contributed to the alloy composition? While appearance of Melle silver in coins is expected, the uniformity of ealier silver and the lack of obvious transition to new silver still puzzles me.