This Solidus was found at a Swedish coin dealer in January this year. It is a gold Solidus from the period of Maurice Tiberius (AD 582-602) or Phocas (AD 602-610).



The coin has two reverse sides! It is not a brockage coin. The coin has no signs of manipulation. Since I know there is a lot of “faked” coins of this type it was sent to David R Sear the leading expert on ancient coins and author of several books in the subject for assessment. From his written certificate:

“This piece, which is of normal solidus weight, has been struck twice with the same reverse die. Both strikings would have required the piece to be placed on a flat surface, instead of the usual anvil (obverse) die, while the punch die was being applied to the blank side. From my own experience I have never seen such as striking which must have resulted from fraudulent activity on the part of a mint worker. The risk run be the perpetrator of such a crime would have been very great indeed (probably death) so presumably he managed to escape detection and used the piece for financial gain in his gaming activities”

Obviously the Mintworker thought it was worth taking the risk…