Early subversive propaganda? UK detector find...

[Lee S]

Hi fellow "barbaric" and Celtic fans....
  I have flown the flag for a while regarding a direct relation between the artwork, symbology and most of all humor in common with "official" Celtic, and Roman occupied period unofficial coins from the UK... regardless of the up to 3 or four C between the cultures... Indeed I have bought as many UK detector finds of these unloved little minims as I can find and afford, as I believe there is much to learn about the UK's attitude towards its occupiers from the locally produced coinage...... As I have said before, I can see a certain "take the piss" attitude in the depiction of the later emperors... Many of the depictions are hardly flattering...    
    Im currently cataloging a lot of tiny British imitations, and I am fairly certain I have come across an act of rebellious die carving in an imitation of the  FEL TEMP REPARATIO type, ... I only see a small child pleading, clutching the Romans leg...... the skirt hangs wrong for it to be one of his legs... This is a tiny coin, only 9mm, but well carved and well struck.... in hand it is even more convincing...

  Any opinions or viewpoints would be well recieved..

  many thanks as always...

Lee.

[SC]

Lee,

I think you are reading too much into it.  What I see is the horse's rear end and tail just to the left of the Emperor's legs.  This appears to be a typical late imitation FTR Falling Horseman.  It appears to be struck from fairly well carved - i.e. faithful to original style - dies on a much too small flan.  There is no way that the striking team could have accurately controlled what parts of the larger die made it to the smaller flan.

Also, such imitations are more commonly found outside military sites than actually in military camps.  However, they are commonly found around military sites and are much rarer in places far from military sites.  All this implies that they were made by civilian entrepreneurs for use in trade largely with military folks.  This implies that subversiveness would not go to far.

Shawn
 

[Lee S]

Thanks for the comment Shaun! You may very well be right regarding me reading too much into the coin... ( although I can't stop seeing it.. Perhaps I need to put it away for a while!)
   But I must disagree about the general subversiveness of these locally produced issues.. The emperor copied is often portrayed quite grotesque, and I can't always put it down to lack of skill by the engravers...
  And it is well known that Uk Celtic ( pre Roman invasion) die engravers often hid faces and other devices in their designs.... As I see threads of the same Celtic style and humour in the later locally produced coinage, I would not be surprised to find hidden devices in them either...

   If you can give me any references regarding this much understudied area of ancient coinage I will be VERY grateful!!

  Best wishes,

Lee.

[Joe Sermarini]

...You may very well be right regarding me reading too much into the coin...But I must disagree about the general subversiveness of these locally produced issues...

I think you are and I don't think this subversiveness exists.

[SC]

There are several other theories concerning the "grotesqueness".  It used to be put down to "barbarian origin".  We now know that is not the case.  Some is clearly the amateur nature of some fabrication.  But some authors have also suggested that it is in part due to avoiding charges of forging coinage - "if it is this crude it will be clear we are not forging an official coin".  Not sure where the truth lies but it shows the many ideas out there.

This material is far from understudied. The best starting point is Brickstock's 408-page "Copies of the Fel Temp Reparatio Coinage in Britain".  Published as BAR British Series #176 in 1987.  Sadly it is tough to find though.

Shawn

[Robert_Brenchley]

HJow skilled were the engravers? I've seen a wide variation in unofficial Gallic Empire coins, from examples which were very lose indeed to the official examples, to ones with a distinctly Celtic style (I agree with you there) to others which were extremely crude. I tend to think it's down to the craftsman's skill rather than deliberate piss-taking.

[SC]

We see everything from what are possibly official dies re-used, what are likely official engravers working on the side, fairly skilled imitators (including possibly people who worked at the official mints as back up during heavy periods), to total amateurs.  We also see some so stylized they may be incorporating other cultural traditions.

Shawn

[Joe Sermarini]

We see everything from what are possibly official dies re-used, what are likely official engravers working on the side, fairly skilled imitators (including possibly people who worked at the official mints as back up during heavy periods), to total amateurs.  We also see some so stylized they may be incorporating other cultural traditions.

Shawn

Ancient coins were struck for a millennium, by hundreds of authorities, in many hundreds of mints, so almost anything that could happen probably did; but I think official mint workers participating in counterfeiting was as unlikely then as it is today. 

[SC]

I am afraid that that is not the case.

The very fact that a system of mint mark and issue controls was introduced by the Romans and maintained for so long is widely seen as a response to internal fraud.  We don't know how much of it went on but the fact such controls lasted for centuries indicates they were required.

We also have the so-called Felicissimus rebellion under Aurelian.   This revolt, which lead to a huge number of deaths, supposedly resulted as a response to Aurelian's reforms aimed at preventing fraud and theft at the Rome mint.  Though counterfeiting coins was not mentioned in the sources, only stealing silver, it is very hard to believe that no counterfeining took place.

The systems in place certainly deterred the lower ranks from engaging in counterfeiting on their own initiative but when the higher ranks (Felicissimus was a rationalis who was in charge of the mint and silver reserves of Rome and more) were crooked then anything was possible.

Shawn