ImitatIons and proto-vandalic nummi in the cIrculating stock in Upper GalIlee between the end of the 5th and early 6th century: the Capernaum deposit (Locus 812)

The deposit of bronze coins discovered in a part of the paved courtyard of the synagogue at Capernaum (excavations of Corbo/Loffreda 1972) indicates a significant importance for reconstructing the structure of coinage in Palestine, especially in Upper Galilee at the end of the 5th century. The study brings forth very particularly a pattern of coins’ irregular in style and manufacture. The variety of these types, without each prototype being identifiable in certain cases, and their relative abundance allow us to formulate the hypothesis that these so-called imitations rather played a structural role in the coin circulations at the end of the century. They were not struck like counterfeit, but rather like Emergency emissions responding to a demand for small change during a period where the official coinage of Antioch and Alexandria was perhaps insufficient. Besides, in the case of circulation as well as hoarding, the distinction between official money and imitation at that period would not have been evident.