★ A curious contemporary forgery ★

Arcadius, 383-408, or Honorius, 395-423. Exagium Solidi (Bronze, 13X14 mm, 5.13 g). Pearl-diademed, helmeted and cuirassed bust of Arcadius and Honorius facing slightly to right, [holding spear in his right hand and] shield decorated with cross over his left shoulder. Rev. Blank. Bendall -. CPAI -. MAH -. Pondera -. A very curious and interesting piece. Minor flan faults, otherwise, very fine.

This curious weight is certainly connected to the cliché or sheet metal exagia emerging in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. However, the cliché was replaced by cutting out a portrait of Arcadius or Honorius from a follis and soldering it onto the square blank. Such an unusual procedure seems quite laborious and likely points towards an unofficial product, which would also explain the rather clumsy and overweight flan. Perhaps the weight was kept deliberately too high to deceive taxpayers or the clients of a merchant: if they paid their dues in solidi, the scale with the overweight exagium would mark them as underweight, forcing the poor debtor to increase the total amount of gold on the table. Should the latter dare to accuse the tax collector or merchant of being a fraudster, the owner of the weight could just point to the imperial portrait and proclaim that it is an officially certified exagium.