Ostrogothic Issue

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 441. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Justin I. 518-527. AV Solidus (4.41 g, 6h). Rome mint, 1st officina. Struck under Ostrogothic king Athalaric, 526-534. D N IVSTI NVS P Γ (ΛV ligate) C (sic) , helmeted, diademed, and cuirassed bust right, holding spear and shield decorated with horseman motif / VICTOR I h hVCCC, Victory standing left, holding long cross; star in left field; Λ/h//CONOB. COI 32; cf. MIB 24 (Theoderic and Athalaric); MEC 1, -; Demo 89-90. EF, minor scrape in right field of reverse.

Ex Christov Family Collection (Goldberg 53, 26 May 2009), lot 1950; Classical Numismatic Group 50 (23 June 1999), lot 1779.

In AD 493, the Ostrogoth Theoderic was sent by the emperor Zeno to remove the then-ruler of Italy, the Skiric Odoacer (who had had dismissed the last Roman emperor of the West), and to then serve as Zeno’s imperial representative there. While the Ostrogoths were technically subordinates of the Byzantine emperor, for which reason they struck coinage in his name, they were, in reality, the de facto rulers of the Italian peninsula.