Numizmatičke Vijesti, Vol. 61 No. 72, 2019.
Original scientific paper
new semissis of Theodoric minted in Rome at the beginning of the reign of the emperor Anastasius: what does it uncover?
Željko Demo
orcid.org/0000-0002-7433-7429
; Archaeological museum in Zagreb, Zagreb, CRO
Abstract
A special place is occupied in the Ostrogothic monetary system by the semissis, the only gold denomination so far represented with only two examples. The first of them has been known for almost two hundred and thirty years (from 1791), but only in 1912 was it recognized as
a probable Ostrogothic coin, and it was definitely attributed to the Ostrogothic monetary system in the early 1970s. The second one appeared in 2011 at a Munich auction, where it achieved a very high price but despite that did not attract adequate professional and scientific attention. Both these semisses are connected by the use of the same obverse die, hence the time and purpose of their creation and minting are closely related and seemingly took place in the same (fiscal) year. The reverse depictions, although both are from the Vota group, differ in numerous details, because of which it can be suggested that their differences, arrangement, and design marked the content of any possible numismatically interesting message.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
237442
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2019.
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