288, Lot: 601. Estimate $100. Sold for $100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VANDALS. Pseudo-Imperial coinage. Circa early 6th century. Æ Nummus (10mm, 0.78 g, 11h). Imitating an uncertain emperor. Carthage(?) mint. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right; legend degraded to a series of dots and dashes / Star within laurel wreath. MEC 1, -; BMC Vandals 165-72. Near VF, earthen brown patina. Scarce.

From the J. P. Righetti Collection, 277.

An enigmatic issue. The BMC catalog (p. 38, note 1) notes that specimens of this type “...appear to be coins of the late Vandal period, but the substitution of dots for the letters of the inscription and the rudeness of the obv. heads suggest that the coins are not the issues of Vandal kings, but of some barbarous tribes (the Mauri?).”