Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1677. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANKISH KINGDOMS. Burgundians. Time of Gundobald and Sigismund. 473-527 AD. AV Solidus (4.50 gm). Struck in the name of Anastasius I, after 491 AD. D N ANASTAS IVS PERP AVG [S's retrograde], diademed, helmeted, and cuirassed bust facing slightly right, holding spear and shield / VICTORI A AVGGG B (small, retrograde B), Victory standing left, holding long voided cross; six-rayed star in right field. CONOB. MEC 1, -; BMC Vandals -; Boutin -. Good VF, slightly wavy flan, flan crack. Very rare, apparently unpublished. ($2500)

This piece has characteristics common to many of the Italian copies of Byzantine solidi, such as the six-rayed star, but diverges enough from the prototype to give reason to believe it is from farther afield. The style of the Victory suggests one of the Frankish kingdoms, possibly Burgundy. One possibly significant feature is the small inverted B in place of the officina mark at the end of the legend. Most Italian and Frankish imitative solidi use a fossilized A for that mark, but Burgundian solidi are known with marks of a GVB monogram (for Gundobald) and S for his successor Sigismund (cf. MEC 340). Perhaps the B was used as a generalized mintmark for Burgundy, either immediately after the death of Gundobald in 516 AD or after the reign of Sigismund, whose successor Gundomar struck no named solidi and was deposed by the Franks in 532 AD. For the original prototype in the name of Anastasius, cf. Fagerlie, "The First Gold Issue of Anastasius," ANSMN 13 (1967), pg. 120, note 5, and MIB 3a. The title PERP[etuus] AVGGG belongs to the first year of the reign of Anastasius (MIB 3a) and was misinterpreted as TERT on the Theodoric issue of Milan (MIB 15) dated to 491-492 AD.