Le monete del castrum

6th century AD (also including one medieval coin). The importance of Loppio - S. Andrea as a study case lies in the high reliability of most of the stratigraphic contexts, in the large percentage of legible coins (85%) and in the possibility of processing the data in relation with the peculiar typology and function of the site. There also is a very diverse range of coin finds; though the great majority are bronzes or debased radiates, there is a remarkable group of six silver pieces and an exceptional single gold specimen. The proportion of high value denomination issues is higher than average; this strengthens the argument that the site played a strategic military role (and possibly commercial as well) on the road between the Garda district and the Adige Valley. Only a small percentage of the finds (c. 9%) dates back to the phases in which the site was inhabited (not earlier than the second half of the 5th century AD); this suggests that late Roman coins (making up over 73% of the total) still played an important role in early Medieval times. Because the site yielded no evidence of a Roman occupation, it seems more plausible to account them as part of the small change in use during the 6th century rather than merely as residual material. This also seems to be confirmed by the fact that most of these finds belong to the same stratigraphic contexts such as Ostrogothic coins. A significant number of the small Roman bronzes (9 or 10) were intentionally pierced. The practice of using pierced coins (both in bronze and in precious metal) for producing ornamentation is widely attested within grave goods in Lombard cemeteries. All the specimens found at Loppio come from the latest structures of the castrum, which can be dated to the 7th century AD, confirming that they were in use during the Lombard phase of the site. What is very unusual about this sample is that the objects to which these pierced coins were supposed to belong do not come from graves but from habitation contexts. Such evidence suggests that, regardless of their final function for ritual or ornamental-symbolic purposes (necklace-bracelet pendants, amulets, talismans), these coins were used in everyday life, thus they could have also retained their basic function as a medium of exchange. The most remarkable single find from the castrum of Loppio is a gold tremissis struck by the mint of Rome in the name of Justinian I. This piece reveals a copper core beneath the gold surface, it being one of the very few plated gold specimens known at present. The rarity of these counterfeits seems to indicate that they were made on a small scale. For this reason, it is very difficult to determine in which circumstances the coin was produced. The prototype appears to be Byzantine. It could either be an ‘emergency’ issue by the Imperial mint to face an extraordinary demand for coinage during the Gothic War, or (although less likely) an ‘unofficial’ counterfeit.