CNG 100, Lot: 355. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VISIGOTHS, Spain. Leovigild. 568-586. AV Tremissis (18mm, 1.49 g, 6h). Emerita (Mérida) mint. + D N LEOVIGILDV(retrograde S) RE, facing bust / + PIV(retrograde S) EMERITΛ VICTOR, facing bust; small x at end of legend. Cf. CNV p. 238, note 79; cf. MV 56b/4 and note 90; Miles, Visigoths 41(b) var. (no x at end of rev. legend; same obv. die); MEC 1, –. Good VF, minute traces of deposits and die rust, minor striking weakness. Unique variety for this mint.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams, purchased from M. Louis Teller, August 1982.

Citing the Freeman Collection coin as the only known specimen for his catalog 41(b) – a coin which did not have the small x at the end of the reverse legend – Miles’ initial inclination to reject the coin outright, based on the obverse bust type, was removed when he compared it to the specimen for catalog 41(a). Citing their inability to verify the authenticity of that coin, the authors of CNV did not include it in their catalog, and the author of MV, while including it in the list of specimens for the type, noted that he shared the same opinion as Miles. Nevertheless, the present coin, struck from the same obverse die as the Miles specimen, but a completely different reverse die, is clearly authentic and confirms the authenticity of the Miles coin as well.