Watch List notes:

THE OSTROGOTHS
Municipal Coinage of Ravenna, 536-553

Decanummium, Ravenna 536-554, Æ 2.88 g. FELIX R – AVENNA Mural-crowned and draped bust r., Rev. Eagle standing l.; on sides, two stars and in exergue, X. BMC Vandals 34-35. Kraus 1-2. MIB 76 (Theoderic-Athalaric and Roma). MEC I, –. Metlich 77 (Theoderic and Roma).
Very rare and in unusually good condition for the issue. Dark tone and very fine


Ex Künker sale 121, 2007, De Wit, 103.
When Rome was abandoned by the Ostrogoths, a municipal coinage of decanummia was inaugurated at Ravenna between 536 and 540, when the city was lost to Belisarius. Hahn has dated the decanummia earlier ascribing them to Rome, but Muratori (S. Muratori, Delle monete anonime ravennati che recano la leggenda "Felix Ravenna", Ravenna 1911) has shown that they were coined at Ravenna. The brief emergence of a second municipal coinage was presumably a consequence of the arrival of Roman moneyers at Ravenna who had fled from Rome when it was abandoned to Belisarius in 536 (MEC I, p. 33).