DOI issue:
Artykuły/Articles
DOI article:Dymowski, Arkadiusz: The Problem of the Presence of Barbarian Imitations of Roman Imperial Denarii in the Lands of Present-Day Poland. An Attempt at a Balance
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57341#0156
ARKADIUSZ DYMOWSKI
i 54
North Rhine-Westphalia),22 in the Hungarian Plain (46 imitations in the Kecel II
hoard alone),23 in Gotland and Öland (66 coins),24 and in the lands of present-day
Ukraine and Moldova. With regard to the finds in Ukraine and Moldova, the Ukrainian
numismatist Oleg Anokhin has collected reliable material which he has published
in the form of an Internet catalogue of the barbarian imitations of Roman coins
found in these two countries.25 Initially, Anokhin not only recorded the finds, but he
placed photographs on the Internet26 of each of the coins that he had catalogued from
the Ukrainian and Moldovan finds that had been struck using the same pairs of dies.
Over time, he limited the material available on the Internet to the types of imitations
themselves, no longer displaying the coins that he recorded which had been struck
using the same pairs of dies.27 In 2015, he published the material that he had collected
in the form of a monograph that was only available in digital format.28 Among other
things, this book contains photographs of 1,080 types of silver imitations of Roman
coins found in Ukraine and Moldova - the vast majority of which are denarii from
the age of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty-but also photographs of the semimanufactures
that were discovered there, that is, the semimanufactures of cast copies of Roman
denarii and the forms into which they were cast; their presence here undoubtedly
shows that at least cast copies such as these were produced in this region. Following
the publication of this work in 2015, Anokhin continued to add the types of imitations
that were newly being noted in Ukraine and Moldova to his internet site. As of 2019,
the site listed 1,568 types of Roman coin imitations in silver, the vast majority of
which were denarii of emperors from the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.29 Thus, taking into
account about 1,500 types of imitative denarii recorded by Anokhin, we can estimate
that at least a few thousand coins come from these finds.30
No evidence suggests that any of the 46 coins found in Poland and mentioned
above were produced by a technique other than being struck by die. Most of these
coins are made from silver; however, we do not have access to any metallographic
research that would allow us to make this assessment with absolute certainty. Using
as a basis the appearance of the coins (either the coins themselves or on the basis
of a photograph), there are no subaerati in the described set of coins. The coin
22 Data based on FMRD VI and FMRD VII.
23 STRIBRNY 2003: 20-30.
24 LIND 2018: 1.
25 ANOKHIN 2018.
26 At present (accessed on January 22, 2019), the site is available at the following address: http://barbarous-
imitations.narod.ru/.
27 Some types are counted twice in Anokhin’s catalogue; however, this is only the case in a few instances.
28 ANOKHIN 2015,passim.
29 IDEM 2018.
30 DYMOWSKI 2019: 186-187.
i 54
North Rhine-Westphalia),22 in the Hungarian Plain (46 imitations in the Kecel II
hoard alone),23 in Gotland and Öland (66 coins),24 and in the lands of present-day
Ukraine and Moldova. With regard to the finds in Ukraine and Moldova, the Ukrainian
numismatist Oleg Anokhin has collected reliable material which he has published
in the form of an Internet catalogue of the barbarian imitations of Roman coins
found in these two countries.25 Initially, Anokhin not only recorded the finds, but he
placed photographs on the Internet26 of each of the coins that he had catalogued from
the Ukrainian and Moldovan finds that had been struck using the same pairs of dies.
Over time, he limited the material available on the Internet to the types of imitations
themselves, no longer displaying the coins that he recorded which had been struck
using the same pairs of dies.27 In 2015, he published the material that he had collected
in the form of a monograph that was only available in digital format.28 Among other
things, this book contains photographs of 1,080 types of silver imitations of Roman
coins found in Ukraine and Moldova - the vast majority of which are denarii from
the age of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty-but also photographs of the semimanufactures
that were discovered there, that is, the semimanufactures of cast copies of Roman
denarii and the forms into which they were cast; their presence here undoubtedly
shows that at least cast copies such as these were produced in this region. Following
the publication of this work in 2015, Anokhin continued to add the types of imitations
that were newly being noted in Ukraine and Moldova to his internet site. As of 2019,
the site listed 1,568 types of Roman coin imitations in silver, the vast majority of
which were denarii of emperors from the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.29 Thus, taking into
account about 1,500 types of imitative denarii recorded by Anokhin, we can estimate
that at least a few thousand coins come from these finds.30
No evidence suggests that any of the 46 coins found in Poland and mentioned
above were produced by a technique other than being struck by die. Most of these
coins are made from silver; however, we do not have access to any metallographic
research that would allow us to make this assessment with absolute certainty. Using
as a basis the appearance of the coins (either the coins themselves or on the basis
of a photograph), there are no subaerati in the described set of coins. The coin
22 Data based on FMRD VI and FMRD VII.
23 STRIBRNY 2003: 20-30.
24 LIND 2018: 1.
25 ANOKHIN 2018.
26 At present (accessed on January 22, 2019), the site is available at the following address: http://barbarous-
imitations.narod.ru/.
27 Some types are counted twice in Anokhin’s catalogue; however, this is only the case in a few instances.
28 ANOKHIN 2015,passim.
29 IDEM 2018.
30 DYMOWSKI 2019: 186-187.