Visigoth - Recared I (586-601) - Gold - Tremissis; Olisipona; +RECCɅREÞVSRE’ / +OLISIPOͶɅIVSTVƧ+ (horizontal Ƨ); Miles, CNV 112, Pliego, Ruth. 124, G.Re.01.22; 1.38g; Unique ; VF+

This tremissis was struck at OLISIPONA, current city of Lisbon, by the Visigothic king Recared I, certainly at the beginning of his reign (586-601). From a historical point of view, the coin, the only one actually known today, clarifies the many doubts that have been raised about whether the important city of post-Roman antiquity would have also issued a coin of the "front busts" type, finally chosen by Leovigild about the year 584, to be the Visigothic national type, which his successors continued until the reign of old Chindasuinth. Pedro Batalha Reis presented in no. 19 of the magazine NVMMVS, of the SPN, of December 1959, a tremissis of the second phase, or transition phase, of the issues in the name of Leovigild that would have occurred between 579 and 583 characterized by bust to the right and cross on steps - a type copied from the species of the empire of Constantinople - which was struck with the irregular legend of ELISSA (pona) FI, and thus attributed to Lisbon. However - and because there is news that the Visigoth coins have been highly appreciated since the remote times of the restorer king D. João IV - an exemplar from Lisbon, unknown today, appears for the first time succinctly described by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, in volume III of the work "Europa Portuguesa", printed in the distant year of 1680. Batalha Reis, in the article cited above, circumvented this information, calling the coin "counterfeits as Miles said", but without acknowledging that this author also says "or simply poorly read". In fact, with the captions given by Faria e Sousa from RECARE-DVSREX and OLISBONAPIVS, this unknown specimen may, perhaps, not be an invention but simply another true and poorly read specimen, as Miles suggested alternatively.

In the coin now offered for sale, the epithet of IVSTVS is normal, as it would be in Faria e Sousa that of PIVS. The ELVORA workshop always uses it; others, in Lusitania, use it before the PIVS, the most common. Thus, the IVSTVS and PIVS forms in the same workshop and in the same reign as seen in EMINIO should not be strange. As stated above, the style is typical of coins from the beginning of the reign of Recared I, in what can be compared with the ample series of EMERITA, where the first specimens present on the obverse the chest with armor in the form of a shield, but characteristic for the protruding shoulders. The example presented is a piece of unique rarity, with singular significance in the history of this capital city. Difficult to appear again, it is very legible and in very good condition.