Watch List notes:

MEROVINGIANS. Acaunum - St. Maurice d'Agaune. After 630/635. Tremissis of 7 Siliquae (Gold, 15 mm, 1.73 g, 12 h), Romanus. ΛCΛVΝΟ FΙΤ Male head to right. Rev. ROMANVS MO Latin cross pattée, within wreath with ties below and closing medallion above, between V - II. Cf. Belfort 20; Depeyrot II 10-A1, 1; HMZ I, 93; Geiger 32; and Prou 1298, (but with a differing bust, the term MO for MVN, and with an A with a crossbar in the moneyer's name. For a similar example see Roma XX, 2020, 720). Very rare. Well-struck, toned and clear. Minor marks and some die rust, otherwise, about extremely fine.
From an American collection, previously in a French collection and acquired in the 1990s.

The first mention of Acaunum goes back to AD 200 and referred to a Roman town that was in what is now the Valais in Switzerland. It was connected to the martyrdom of St. Maurice by the emperor Maximian in 287. A basilica was first built in his honour c. 360-370, and an Abbey in the Saint's name was founded in 515 by the Burgundian king Sigismund. The town's name was changed to St. Maurice in 1003. The importance of the abbey and concomitant richness of the town explains its production of gold tremisses; their great rarity today can be explained by the change from gold to silver coinage in the West in the 8th century: most existing pieces must have been melted down over the following century.