Important Ancient Coins

ROMAN IMPERIAL COINS, Avitus (455-456), Æ 12, d n avitvs [——], pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right, rev. vot x mvlt xx within wreath, 1.10g/11h (RIC – [cf. RIC X, 2410-13 for obv., RIC IX, 51 for rev.]). Fine and clear, unpublished (£200-300)

Avitus was proclaimed emperor in Toulouse in July 455, after being persuaded by the Visigothic king, Theodoric, to claim the vacant throne of the West. His power base remained in Gaul and he transferred the staff of the Ravenna mint to Arles, but in Italy he alienated the population by stripping the bronze from the roofs of public buildings in order to pay his Gothic allies. In this confused period many Visigothic imitative solidi circulated in Gaul, but this bronze is of Roman fabric and employs a reverse of the previous century