L'usurpateur Domitianus

This unique coin minted in the name of Domitianus Augustus was found in 1900 amongst a hoard of antoniniani with a terminus under Aurelian and the Tetrici (AD 273- 274). The coin, along with the rest of the hoard, was kept in the collections of the Musée Dobrée in Nantes, but throughout the entire twentieth century studies of it were based only on a drawing and, after 1930, a photograph of a cast; the coin itself was thought to have disappeared from the Nantes collections. Its rediscovery allows for analysis with new data and has led to the rejection of the hypothesis that it was a modern fake. This unicum provides evidence that the two mints in operation under the Gallic empire were controlled for a short time by Domitianus, who usurped power at the beginning of 271 after the murder of Victorinus had left the Gallic empire without a leader.