CNG 100, Lot: 454. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

UNCERTAIN GERMANIC TRIBES. Pseudo-Imperial coinage. AV Tremissis (16mm, 1.39 g, 3h). Imitating a pseudo-imperial issue of the Lombards of Tucscany(?). IIIIOV IIIV, highly schematized bust right / VIIOVIIIVIOVIV, cross potent; OIIO. Cf. Oddy, Analyses, Class III (for prototype); cf. Bernareggi, Moneta 16 (same); MEC 1, –. EF.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Schweizerische Kreditanstalt 2 (27 April 1984), lot 667.

While the obverse of this local imitation is exceptionally crude, the reverse legend, a meaningless string of the letters V, I, and O, as well as the abbreviated mintmark “ONO,” are very characteristic of Lombardic issues from Tuscany (see, for example, lot 384 above, and MEC 1, 309-12). Perhaps this piece copies a pseudo-Imperial Lombardic coin, rather than simply a Byzantine issue.