THE word ‘barbarous’ generally justmeans ‘crude’, and does not necess-

arily indicate a connection with the bar-barians, who were the uncivilized peopleoutside the Roman Empire. For example,in the ’Isfiya Hoard, which was buriednear Mount Carmel in Israel soon after

53 AD and contained about 3,500 tetra-drachms of Tyre, almost 20% of them arebarbarous. On these coins the imagesare of poor quality and the legends areoften just a jumble of dots. If you com-pare Figure 1 (an ordinary tetradrachmof Tyre) with Figure 2 (a barbarous

tetradrachm), the difference is obvious.No one knows when and where thesebarbarous coins were minted. BrooksLevy (TINC 13: 885-889, 2006) suggestedthat because minting at Tyre was re-duced during the period, 21 to 34 AD,they might have been minted elsewhereduring that period to satisfy the contin-uing demand for these coins which theJews needed to pay the temple tax. Shesuggested that these “imitation shekels”were produced at an unofficial mint inJerusalem or somewhere in Judaea.Therefore it is quite possible that thecoin that Peter found in the fish’s mouthto pay his and Jesus’ temple tax (Matthew17:24-27) was one of these barbarouscoins. (Figure 3) There might be theo-logical implications if the coin that Jesusgave to the temple was an “imitationshekel”. Most barbarous coins, however, dohave a connection with the barbarians.To understand these coins one needs toknow who the barbarians were. Theywere not a homogeneous mass of peoplebut groups of different tribes that differedculturally and tended to migrate overtime. Up till about 100 AD the prevailingculture of the barbarians of northernEurope was Celtic, and the people areknown as the Celts. As coins became more widely used bythe Greeks and especially after the suc-cessful campaigns of Philip II and hisson, Alexander the Great (356 -323 BC),who employed large numbers of Celticmercenaries, the Celts began to makesimilar coins. Because their craftsmenlacked the skill and artistry of the Greekdie engravers, it is usually easy to tell if

Charging Huns Image Wikimedia Commons

Figure 1 – Tetradrachm of Tyre. Diameter 28 mms and weight 14.4 grams. The head on the obverseis that of Heracles (Hercules). His club is on the reverse with an eagle. The Greek legend (of Tyre,holy and [city] of refuge) is clear, as is the date (120 BC). (Collection of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane)

Figure 2 – Barbarous imitation of a tetradrachm of Tyre. Diameter 23 mms and weight 14.2 grams(It has a thick flan). Date and mint unknown. (Collection of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane)

a coin is of Celtic origin. For example, ifyou compare the genuine tetradrachmof Philip II in Figure 4 with the Celticimitation in Figure 5 the difference isobvious. As the copies become moreremote from the originals they can looklike drawings by Picasso. (Figure 6). Sometimes in the Celtic imitations, theinfluence of their culture is discernible.Their understanding of the world be-comes apparent as they deal with theimages that come to them from thatother world, which was the civilizationof ancient Greece and Rome. A goodexample of this is a silver coin from theHessen area in Germany. (Figure 7)This Celtic coin is from the period, 100 to50 BC, and because the engraver wantedthe coin to be like Greek and Romancoins, and therefore acceptable in trade,he put a human head on the obverse. Butthere is a difference: it seems that thetop part of the skull has been removed

to reveal the brain. The frontal and temp-oral lobes are clearly shown. It lookslike an anatomy drawing from Renais-sance Italy. Were the Celts so advanced?The answer is “No”. Remember thatthe Celts were barbarians. They were

uncivilized and had a warrior culturewhere killing was routine. The success-ful warrior would cut off the head of hisopponent and preserve it as a trophy, andthe object would have spiritual power.In some cases the brain was removedand hardened in lime so that it becamea stone ball. The Celts would have beenfamiliar with the appearance of the sur-face of the human brain. (Figure 8) Whatis striking about it is the way the sulci(grooves) curve around in parallel lines.This appearance must have influencedCeltic art because circular designs areoften seen on their artefacts. (Figure 9) On the reverse of the Celtic coin in fig-ure 7, the image does not copy anythingfrom the Greek or Roman world but is

Figure 3 – ‘The Miracle of Saint Peter and the Fish’ by the 17th century Italian School. Peter isshowing the tax collector how he found the coin. The wealthy tax collector is smartly dressed inthe fashion of 17th century Italy. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 4 – Tetradrachm of Philip II (359 -336 BC)minted at Pella in Macedonia in about 345 BC.The head of Zeus is on the obverse. (ClassicalNumismatic Group, Auction 94, Lot 216)

Figure 5 – Celtic imitation of a tetradrachm of Philip II. It was made by a tribe in the middleDanube region in the 2nd century BC. (Triton X, Lot 2)

specifically Celtic. A druid (Celtic priest)has put on a ritual cloak of feathers andis transforming himself into a bird. Thisbird-man is holding a torc (a metal ringwith a gap in it, usually worn aroundthe neck of a warrior) and is apparentlyusing it to express the spiritual or mag-ical power of the bird. The appearanceof the bird-man on the reverse and thebrain on the obverse might have imbuedthe coin itself with power in the eyes of thetribal people who used it. According toSimon Lilly (Ancient Celtic Coin Art,Wooden Books, 2008), “Iron Age art stillcarries the magical force that created it,because the reason for its creation wasto carry and transmit that magical forceto whoever beheld it, for as long as itexisted.”In the early centuries AD, a group oftribes known as the Goths graduallymigrated into northern Europe, proba-bly from southern Sweden. They beganto make raids into Roman territory southof the Danube River. Eventually theyseparated into branches such as theOstrogoths and the Visigoths. By about270 AD most of the Roman province ofDacia was abandoned to the Visigoths.The Celts still existed in some marginalareas such as Ireland but most of themhad been absorbed or displaced. The mapof barbarian, northern Europe becamecomplex with Gothic and Germanic tribesmoving in various directions. As theymade contact with the civilized worldall of these barbarian people began to usecoins and eventually make them them-selves. In the third century there wasa great output of what are known as“barbarous radiates”. They were copiesof Roman antoniniani (base metal coinswith a small percentage of silver), which

were issued by Tetricus I and II (270 –273 AD), Claudius II Gothicus (268 –270 AD) and some other emperors. Theywere called ‘radiates’ because the em-peror wears a prominent radiate crownon the obverse. They are smaller thantheir official counterparts and wereprobably not equal in value. They mighthave functioned as tokens satisfying alocal need for small change. They wereproduced at various mints, each with itsown style. When the emperor Aureliancame to power in 270 AD he reformed thecoinage, increasing the size and weightof the antoniniani. In 274 AD he bannedthe circulation of the barbarous radi-ates, but they continued to be used foranother decade or so.

Although some barbarous radiatesare good copies of the Roman coins, mostare very crude with illegible legends andalmost unrecognizable types. It is interes-ting to follow the progression of a type asit becomes more distant from the Romanoriginal and more under the influenceof the engraver’s barbarian worldview.Take, for example, the common type ofSpes, which is a Latin word meaning‘hope’. Spes was personified as a womanwho holds a flower in her right hand andlifts the hem of her skirt with her lefthand. In its finest form the type is seenon a sestertius of the Roman emperorClaudius (41 – 54 AD). (Figure 10) By thethird century the standard of numis-

Figure 6 – Celtic imitation of a tetradrachm of Philip II. It was made by a tribe in the Carpathianregion in the 2nd century BC. The horse and its rider are Picasso-esque. (Classical NumismaticGroup, Auction 96, Lot 605)

Figure 8 – The humanbrain (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 7 – A Celtic coin from the Hessen area in south-west Germany (100-50 BC). The die en-graver would have been familiar with the shape and grooves on the brain, but not with the shorthairstyles of the men shown on the Roman denarii of the time. (Image courtesy of ComptoirGénéral Financier. © http://www.cgb.fr MONNAIES XV)

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Figure 9 – A Celtic fibula (brooch). (Source:Wikimedia Commons. Nordisk familjebok [1909]vol. 10, p 1145)

matic art had declined considerably, buta reasonable image of Spes does appearon most of the Roman coins and the leg-ends are clear and correct. (Figure 11) Onthe barbarous radiates, however, thingsstart to get out of hand. In Figure 12,the flower is enormous. No flower ever

grew to that size in Europe. In Figure13, the poor lady has become hopelesslyentangled in her skirt: there is an awfuljumble of legs, hem and fabric. Theengraver probably did not realize thatthe markings on the example that he wascopying represented the uplifted skirt. In

Figure 14, we have reached an extreme:Spes has changed from a refined Romanlady holding a delicate flower and co-quettishly lifting the hem of her skirtinto a terrible creature with enormousclaws, something seen only in a barbar-ian’s nightmare. (Figure 15) The idea oflifting fine fabric in this way was beyondthe barbarian’s comprehension. His wifewore only rough material and wouldnever behave like that. Barbarous coins are fun, and muchcheaper than the originals. They remindus of that fascinating time in Europeanhistory when the civilized world camein contact with the uncivilized.

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Figure 10 – Sestertius of Claudius (41-54 AD). On the reverse Spes (Hope) holds a flower andlifts her skirt. (Dr Busso Peus Nachf. Auction 409, lot 340)

Figure 11 – Antoninianus of Tetricus II (270-273AD) minted at Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne).The images and legends are clear. (Gitbud &Naumann Auction 14, Lot 774)

Figure 12 – Barbarous radiate in imitation of a coin of Tetricus II. Spes holds an enormous flower. (Author’s collection)

Figure 13 – Barbarous radiate in imitation of acoin of Tetricus I. On the reverse Spes has gotherself into an awful tangle. (Author’s collection)

Figure 14 – Barbarous radiate in imitation of acoin of Tetricus I or II. On the obverse the nameis wrongly spelt, TITRICVS. On the reverse Speshas enormous claws. (Author’s collection)

Figure 15 – Coloured drawing of the figure onthe reverse of Figure 15.