[gothic-l] Re: Trailing the Eruli in the North - solidi

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "troels_brandt" <trbrandt at p...> wrote:
> Dirk,
> Just one further question.
> Is there found a significant number of solidi from Constantinopel
in
> Poland around Vistula or Oder? What about Ukraine?
> Troels


Troels,

I am not entirely certain about that, but my impression is that Roman
gold coins found in Poland or the Ukraine tends to be earlier and
only in very small numbers. Thus, I know of finds of so called aurei
(Roman gold coins) of the 3rd and 4th centuries in these areas, but I
am not aware of 5th and 6th century solidi hoards from there. For the
Ukraine the matter is similar, but here native people resorted to
imitating Roman coins on a larger scale. Hence, there is a whole
corpus of 'barbarised' Roman aurei (and denari) from the Ukraine. In
the case of Poland the few coin finds have probably to do with
Vandals, Goths and Burgundians etc. who served in the Roman army and
brought these coins back. In the Ukraine there must have been more
intensive trade and I suppose that these coins fullfilled a real
commercial function.

I recently received two articles (one unpublished) by an
Russian/Ukrainian author A. Sergeev, who wrote about Gothic coins
from the Taman and north Black Sea area. I have some 30 coins of this
series myself, which is otherwise practically unknown in the west.
Sergeev reiterated earlier findings that state that these coins
really were made by Goths from 260AD to 360AD. This attribution seems
unbelivable, but there really seems to be no other candidate as
originator of this coinage and all the evidence points to the Goths.
If that was really true it would change our understanding of the
Goths and Gothic life in that area quite a bit, because these are low
value coins intended from small short distance trade directed towards
the north Caucasus.


Dirk

PS  I can write/talk about coins for hours














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