Conveners
S55. ROME 21. MANUFACTURE AND USE OF COUNTERFEIT ROMAN IMPERIAL DENARII IN BARBARICUM
- Jarosław Bodzek (Jagiellonian University)
Description
Org.: Arkadiusz Dymowski, chair: Jarosław Bodzek
Until recently there was a widespread conviction that Roman denarii from 1st-2nd centuries AD discovered to the north of the Danubian limes and to the east of the Rhine limes, almost invariably genuine coins of official issue, should be treated only as an evidence of the influx of Roman coinage to Barbaricum and their redistribution within this region. However, nowadays we could make a hypothesis that the products of unauthorised workshops spread in the barbarian territories to the same extent, or even more so, than within the Empire. The pool of counterfeit Imperial denarii is represented by e.g., plated coins (denarii subaerati) and coins cast of silver-like base metal alloys (denarii flati). One of the most surprising outcomes of recent studies is that at least some of these coins, both denarii subaerati and denarii flati, were manufactured locally in the Barbaricum. This is sufficiently supported by materials from Ukraine where the remnants of workshops producing counterfeit denarii have been recently discovered.
The conclusion that the Barbarians not only used, but also produced counterfeit denarii is of great importance for the research on the use of Roman coinage in the territory outside the limes. We may suppose that Roman Imperial denarii were used in the barbarian society as a currency, but not to the same extent as within the Empire. They could serve as a standard value, also as a means of payment and/or means of exchange apparently resembling the currency circulation. In this context the most probable hypothesis about the counterfeit denarii in Barbaricum could be very simple: they were made for material gain and to deceive the users, like other counterfeit coins produced for centuries in various parts of the world
Recent years have seen an increase of information about new finds of unofficial copies of Roman imperial denarii made by casting and a progress in research. While earlier workshops for the production of such coins were known in the Roman provinces, currently there is more evidence for the existence of such workshops in the Barbaricum. At the moment, the greatest concentration of the production...
Made either by striking or casting, counterfeit Roman Imperial denarii have been attested on the territory of western Moldavia (Romania). Denarii subaerati, produced by striking, are the most numerous, with approximately the same number noted in hoards (more than 30 pcs.), and among single finds (more than 20 pcs.). Finds of cast denarii are limited at present to specimens found in a single...
In recent decades interest in finds of irregularly issued Roman coins in the Central and Eastern European Barbaricum has increased significantly. In the area of the Przeworsk culture, the starting point was excavation of a Roman and Migration period settlement in Jakuszowice where a significant number of subaerati were identified. Over the last few years the intensification of the process of...
A major increase in the volume of finds of Roman Imperial denarii subaerati (plated denarii) in Barbaricum noted in recent years has contributed to expandingour understanding of the occurrence of these coins on this territory. It is more than likely that some of these subaerati were manufactured in eastern areas of the Barbaricum at least since the end of the 3rd century. Of course this does...
