Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Triton XXIII 14-15 Jan 2020
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VISIGOTHS, Spain. Leovigild. 568-586. AV Tremissis (17mm, 1.28 g, 6h). Class 2. Elvora mint in Portugal. Struck circa 584. D II LIVVICILDVS, diademed and draped bust right; on drapery, upturned crescents above cross / ELVOR + A RE+, Latin cross pattée set on four steps; ONO. Grierson, Coins of Medieval Europe 38; CNV 46; Pliego 52b6 (this coin cited); Miles, Visigoths 36a; MEC 1, 210; ME 73. Lightly toned, minor marks and flan flaws on reverse. Near EF. Extremely rare.
From the Richard A. Jourdan Collection of Medieval European Coins. Ex Caballero de la Yndias (Part III, Aureo & Calicó, 21 October 2009), lot 1243.
'The national Visigothic coinage began a few years before the end of the reign of Leovigild, the greatest of the Visigothic kings. He did much to strengthen royal power, and we are told that he was the first to wear royal robes and insignia and seat himself upon a throne.... The earliest coins are of traditional Victory type but the king's name replaces the blundered inscription of the pseudo-imperial series. In the second phase [the coin offered here] the Victory was replaced with a cross-on-steps, copied from the solidus of Leovigild's contemporary, the Byzantine emperor Tiberius II (578-82), and reverse, and the reverse inscription give the name of the mint, with ONO surviving from CONOB. The third phase saw the introduction of a facing royal bust on both sides of the coin.' Grierson, p.15.
From the Richard A. Jourdan Collection of Medieval European Coins. Ex Caballero de la Yndias (Part III, Aureo & Calicó, 21 October 2009), lot 1243.
'The national Visigothic coinage began a few years before the end of the reign of Leovigild, the greatest of the Visigothic kings. He did much to strengthen royal power, and we are told that he was the first to wear royal robes and insignia and seat himself upon a throne.... The earliest coins are of traditional Victory type but the king's name replaces the blundered inscription of the pseudo-imperial series. In the second phase [the coin offered here] the Victory was replaced with a cross-on-steps, copied from the solidus of Leovigild's contemporary, the Byzantine emperor Tiberius II (578-82), and reverse, and the reverse inscription give the name of the mint, with ONO surviving from CONOB. The third phase saw the introduction of a facing royal bust on both sides of the coin.' Grierson, p.15.