Ex Gussage All Saints Hoard

Triton XVII, Lot: 806. Estimate $20000. Sold for $27000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Eugenius. AD 392-394. AR Miliarense (21mm, 3.66 g, 6h). Treveri (Trier) mint. D N EVGENI VS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / GLORIA ROMANORVM, Eugenius standing left, holding labarum in right hand and shield set on ground in left; TRPS. RIC IX 104; RSC 2†a. EF. Extremely rare.

Ex Spink 214 (26 September 2012), lot 437; Gussage All Saints Hoard (PAS Ref. DOR-A1CCB1; NC 171 [2011], no. 54).

Found on land belonging to the parish of Gussage All Saints in Dorset, England on 10 May 2010, the Gussage All Saints Hoard comprised 9 miliarenses and 653 siliquae packed in an earthenware flagon. The hoard ranges from Julian II to Honorius and was probably deposited around AD 410, when Roman rule in Britain was crumbling, leaving the province to defend itself from increasing Germanic and Irish attacks. In accordance with U.K. Treasure Laws, the hoard was taken intact to the British Museum, where the coins were cleaned and catalogued.

Following the death of Valentinian II in May 392, his Frankish magister militum, Arbogast, hailed Eugenius emperor of the West. Eugenius, a professor of grammar and rhetoric, seemed a suitable selection as he posed little threat to Arbogast’s ambitions, but Eugenius’ replacement of the eastern emperor Theodosius I’s men in imperial posts with his own loyalists, as well as his generosity toward pagans, antagonized Theodosius and ultimately led to the Battle of the Frigidus in September 394. Theodosius’ forces were victorious, with Eugenius being captured and executed, while Arbogast committed suicide.