7 - The re-use of obsolete coins: the case of Roman imperial bronzes revived in the late fifth century

Summary

The occasion for the present study was provided some years ago by Philip Grierson's generosity in letting me retain for examination 23 ‘countermarked’ Roman coins from his collection, and in showing me a preliminary study for his forthcoming book on Dark Age coinage. No proper catalogue of these specimens is given here since it will form part of the projected publication of the Cambridge late antique and medieval series. To this already significant core I have added material from a number of other public and private collections; the total of 113 specimens should offer a fairly representative sample of the series.

We are not dealing here with ‘countermarked’ coins in the usual sense of the word, since the LXXXIII and XLII figures which they bear were not punched or stamped with a single instrument, but seem to have been cut or incised individually with several chisel strokes. That several strokes were needed can best be seen on some coins where, for instance, the horizontal bar of the L stretches too far back (fig. 1; pi. 9, no. 3) or joins too high (fig. 2, pi. 9, no. 4) or when the two bars of the L are struck at such an acute angle as to form a kind of V (fig. 3; pi. 9, no. 5).