Sale: Nomos 1, Lot: 178. Estimate CHF1000.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009.  Sold For CHF1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Zeno. 474-475/476-491. Tremissis (Gold, 1.47 g 6), Milan, 474-475/476-493. D N ZENO PERP AVC Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev. Cross within wreath; below, CONOB. Depeyrot 43/8. Lacam pl. 46, 161 (this coin). MEC 60. RIC 3614. Good extremely fine.

From the collections of a Gentleman and of G. Lacam, Dürr/Michel, 8 November 1999, 164.

The Italian coinage of Zeno was struck in his name by two rulers, one legitimate and the other less so. The earliest issues, as the previous lot, were produced under Julius Nepos who ruled in the West 474-475 and then was titular emperor, with his court in Dalmatia, 477-480. After 475 almost all coins in the name of Zeno from Italian mints had to have been struck under Odoaker, who had become the de facto ruler of Italy after he deposed Romulus Augustulus and killed his father Orestes. Odoaker ostensibly ruled with the permission of Zeno, but his position was never stable and the Emperor finally sent the Ostrogoths under their king Theodoric to expel him; he was defeated and killed in 493.