UNCERTAIN GERMANIC TRIBES, Pseudo-Imperial coinage. Late 3rd-early 4th centuries. 'Aureus' (Gold, 20 mm, 6.17 g), 'Ulów Group', O3/R4. Imitating Claudius II, 268-270, or Aurelian, 270-275. OИO∞И NOИBNTOIΓT Laureate, draped and cuirassed imperial bust to left. Rev. T[...]TOIIIIIIIITUOIII Complex circular floral pattern consisting of an inner and an outer rosette with a pellet-in-annulet in the center. An intriguing type of great geometrical beauty. Original suspension loop broken off and with some scrapes on the obverse, otherwise, about very fine.


While this is not the finest coin in the Aurum Barbarborum Collection, it is certainly one of the most intriguing, boasting a beautiful and complex floral pattern of uncertain meaning on the reverse. Could this represent the design of a particularly ostentatious Germanic shield, perhaps that of an important warlord or kinglet? However tempting such an idea is, it seems more likely to this cataloguer that the design derives from a very distant and unusual Roman prototype, and that is the denarius of Augustus and L. Aquilius Florus from 19 BC (RIC 309) with a flower on the reverse. Why such a rare denarius would wind up in the hands of a Germanic artist in the late 3rd century is unclear, but if it did, one can easily imagine how impressed he must have been by its beautiful design.