Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (12.2017)

VITAL’ SIDAROVICH

It is noteworthy that this latter imitation was found in a hoard, the dating
of which falls into a quite narrow time interval, in contrast to most hoards of Roman
denarii found in the Barbaricum. The youngest coins in the Lyscycy hoard are
early emissions of Marcus Aurelius (RIC 92, 677 and 688). This fact, together with
the very good condition of most of the coins and the prevalence of emissions by
Trajan and Hadrian (more than 53% of the total number), suggests that the hoard
was deposited no later than the last quarter of the 2nd Century AD.28 It may even
be that it was deposited later than this. Nevertheless, we can quite confidently
conclude that the imitation from Lyscycy was made in the period between the issue of
the prototype of its obverse and the time of the hoard’s deposit, that is, in the second
half of the 2nd Century AD. K. Myzgin proposed, some time ago, that imitations
of silver denarii of the lst-3rd centuries were produced no earlier than at the end
of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4* Century.29 However, the imitation from Lyscycy
disproves this hypothesis, at least in part.
One more imitation of a denarius has quite recently been discovered among
the coins from the Aleksycy hoard, Bierastavica Raion, Grodna Voblast’. The first
indication of this hoard’s existence appeared in 1968 when local children found some
coins in ploughed ground; most of them, unfortunately, were dispersed amongst
various collectors.30 Only eight denarii found their way to the collection of the
Numismatic Cabinet of Belarusian State University. Later, the collection was
enriched by two more coins ascribed to this hoard. Then, in 2011, treasure hunters
“investigating” the location of the find revealed the main part of the hoard, consisting
of436 coins and fragments of two silver fibulae.31 The presence of the non-monetary
objects makes it possible to give the hoard a dating that is more precise. While
the coins represent an assemblage typical for similar hoards in the forest beit
of the Barbaricum - from Vespasian to Septimus Severus (the youngest coin is
dated to 194 AD) - the Vyshkov-type fibulae are dated to a much later time: from
the first half to the middle of the 5* Century, which is to say, the D2-D3 phases of the
Migration Period. Taking this into account and also the fact that the fibulae are cut
into fragments, converted into scrap, we can date the burial of the Aleksycy hoard
to the 5* Century AD, most likely from the middle to the second half of the Century.
The above-mentioned coin from Aleksycy (Plate 2, Fig. 2) is an imitation
of a denarius of Commodus, issued in 192 AD (RIC 237). The image on the obverse

28 IDEM 2009: 45.
29 MYZGIN 2009: 98.
30 This hoard was initially referred to as the Zukievicy hoard (ANOKHIN 1974: 23-25), as it was found
between the villages of Bolshiye Zukievicy and Aleksycy. However, the latter village lies closer to the site of
the find; hence, it is more correct to refer to this hoard as the Aleksycy hoard.
31 KORZUN 2014: 9-10.