Folia archeologica 28.

Katalin Bíro-Sey: Római pénzek egykorú hamisítványai a Niklovits gyűjteményből

ROMAN COUNTERFEIT COINS 97 TVS EXERCIT, struck copied by our specimen (Cat. No. 22), with the mark S •SIS- The type with the above mark was issued in 320 at Siscia.

1

8 The coin with the reverse type GLORIA EXERCITVS was coined for Constans; the obverse of its copy (Cat. No. 23) shows the name of the emperor quite intellegibly. Its reverse is, though, rather barbarizing and the mintmark, which could serve for identifying the mint office and fixing the date, is illegible. This type GLORIA

. . . with the single ensign was usually struck for different emperors and caesars between the vears 335 and 341.

1!

l The original of the counterfeit centenionalis whose obverse shows the emperor looking right (Cat. No. 24), was issued for Constantine II or Constantius Gallus; on our specimen the emperor is bareheaded. Its reverse is of an equestrian III type FEL TEMP REPARATIO, with the mintmark ïsTs" The bareheaded representation points to the fact that the coin follows an original of Constantius Gallus. Centenionales with a similar mark were issued between 351 and 354 by the Siscia mint.

2

0 As for the origin of these contemporary counterfeit coins we cannot add anything more to those published earlier by Göhl, Alföldi and Jónás. According to Jónás the fakes from the first and second centuries, so the counterfeit denarii of Augustus, point to the direction that in the first century there must have been strong connections between Southern Russia and the Hungarian Plain, as in the former region similar counterfeit denarii have come to light.

21 In the course of the excavation of the Sarmatian cemetery at Madaras, County Bács, counterfeit denarii of the first and second centuries were found in graves;

22 these can be held for coins forged by the Sarmatian population of the Hungarian Plain. Among the bronze counterfeit coins of the 4th century those of Constantine the Great, struck about 320, occur the most often; fake centenionales from the subsequent period are much rarer. This fact is mirrored both in the Niklovits Collection and in the collection of the Numismatic Collection. According to Alföldi this time - about 320 - there must have been a counterfeit mint in the province. Not only bronze but also gold coins were counterfeited. This might have been a common sympton in this period, as new decrees were passed against counterfeiters in 319 and 321,

2

3 corroborated in 326 and 329.

2

4 l

s RIC VII. Siscia. 437-440. 1

9 LR ВС = Kent, J. P. С-Carson, R. A. G., Late Roman Bronze Coinage A. 1). 324-498. I II. (London I960) 5-6, 7-8, 11, 15-19, 21, 23-25, 27, 29, 31, 32. As Constans died in 340, his mints close with this date. 2

0 LRBC II. 70. 2

1 Orsnikova, A., Materialy po drevnej numizmatik cernomorskogo poberezja. (Moskva 1892) PI. Ill, 34—38. 2

2 From the verbal communication of Mihály Kőhegyi as well as from my identification of the coin find of Madaras. 2

3 Codex Theodosianus IX. 21, 1-2. 2

4Codex Theodosianus IX. 21, 3-4. 7 I'olia Archaeologica 1977