Visigothic Suebi Triens

The Visigothic Suebi Triens was often struck using gold from melted Roman solidi, a practical reuse that bridged the fall of empire and the rise of barbarian kingdoms.

These small gold coins, weighing around 1.5 grams, featured crude imitations of Roman designs, like a facing bust on one side and a cross on the other. Rulers such as Rechiar might have authorized some, but most bear no names, leaving attribution murky. They circulated in what’s now northern Spain and Portugal, serving as currency in a fractured post-Roman world.

We don’t know exact mintages; records from that era are scarce, likely never kept. Historians guess production peaked in the mid-5th century, but that’s just an educated hunch.

Some call them primitive, but they’re efficient little survivors.