A group of ancient Roman coins that have been dismissed as forgeries have been verified.
The coins may have been considered fakes because they were dated to the 260sCE. One of the artifacts has a mysterious figure that is not depicted in any other records.
A figure of Roman authority history seems to have forgotten when the name "Sponsian" is stamped on some items.
"Scientific analysis of these ultra-rare coins rescues the emperor Sponsian from obscurity," says Paul Pearson, who led the study.
The gold aurei coins were found in 1713 and were declared poor forgeries in the mid-19th century by the leading expert. They differ in manufacture and style to authentic coins of their period, for example, have different weights and have different designs.
During the Renaissance period, imitations of Roman coins were made outside of the empire. More realistic forgeries were made with fake wear in order to trick people.
The gold in the 1713 collection is worth more than US$20,000. Three of the coins at The Hunterian Museum depict actual emperors, but the fourth depicts a mystery man.
There is only one instance of the name Sponsian being from a Roman funerary inscription. At the time of the discovery of the coins, there was only one instance of the name.
The team explains in their paper that the inscription was excavated in the 1720s so that it couldn't have been known to a hypothetical forger.
Pearson and colleagues used various methods to find wear scratches on the coins. The use and circulation of the token suggest it had not been scratched to imitate use. The tiny bits of soil on the surfaces support the idea that the artifacts were buried for a long time.
The coins have different compositions with different amounts of gold and silver. Two genuine Roman mint coins are basically pure gold.
The Sponsian coin has a different mix of gold, silver, and copper than the other coins. Pearson and colleagues conclude that the coins are most likely made from imperfectly refined Ore and were not created in Rome.
Historians believe that Sponsian may have been a short-term ruler during the reign of Philip the Arab. The idea that Sponsian stole Philip from him is not supported by the fact that Philip is on some of the coins.
Pearson and team write that the observations force a re-evaluation of Sponsian. He may have been an army commander in the isolated Roman Province of Dacia during the military crisis of the 260sCE.
The researchers think that Sponsian created his own empire in a remote gold mining outpost after the Roman Empire began to break down.
The name of the most recent emperors who had achieved some success in the area were used to create precious metal bullion, which was initially created using old Republican-era designs, then using the names of previous emperors who had achieved some success in the area.
Sponsian's crudely manufactured coins supported a functioning monetary economy.
This would explain why Sponsian didn't appear in any official Roman records.
At a time when the empire was beset by civil wars and the borderlands were overrun by plundering invaders, it is believed thatponsian ruled Roman Dacia.
The research was published in a peer reviewed journal.
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