LXXXIII

The Roman numeral 83.

A mark of value, LXXXIII for 83 nummi, countermarked (using a hammer and chisel) on Roman imperial sestertii, is usually attributed to the Ostrogoths, but it may also have been applied by the Vandals in North Africa. Most of these marks are found on 1st century sestertii, usually of Nero, Galba and the Flavians. Old asses and dupondii in this series were countermarked XLII for 42 nummi. Cambridge has a good collection of these countermarked coins, 2 sestertii and 25 middle bronzes, all published and illustrated in MEC I, pp. 424 - 427.

The function of these peculiar marks of value – 83 being almost, but not exactly two times 42 – was first deduced by Philip Grierson. He recognized that the newly created denominations were divisions of a silver unit valued at 500 nummi. 42 and 83 are the closest whole numbers one can get to a twelfth (exactly 41⅔) and a sixth (exactly 83⅓) of 500.

Sestertius of Galba countermarked LXXXIII,
Leu/Numismatica Ars Classica 'Arcadius to
Constantine XI ' 26 May 1993, lot 457

See Countermarked in Late Antiquity.