From the Suebi to Philip II: Galicia’s six BIC coins

Diario de Santiago (opens in a new tab) (Gonzalo Catoira, 15 October 2026) gives a feature to the six coins that Decree 96/2026, published in the DOG on 8 October, lists as assets of cultural interest. The 3 October note and the Tui tremissis note already recorded the Xunta’s decision and the decree’s appearance. This piece adds weights, diameters, and a legend debate. None of these coins is in Notofilia’s virtual collection.

From pre-emption to the museum

The paper places the coins in the collection of Antonio Orol Pernas (Ferreira, O Valadouro). The Xunta acquired them by pre-emption after a Madrid auction in June 2025, for €178,200, and holds them at the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Ourense, where they were presented in February. The file began with seven coins; the Ministry of Culture took a quarter excelente of the Catholic Monarchs, A Coruña mint, for the National Archaeological Museum.

The six, one by one

Diario de Santiago gives these measurements:

• Suebi tremissis in the name of Honorius: gold, 1.35 g, 16 mm.
• Suebi tremissis in the name of Valentinian: gold, 1.35 g, 14.1 mm, with a small X mark.
• Suebi tremissis of the Latina Mvnita series, with “MVNITA GALLICA PAX”: gold, 1.24 g. The paper summarizes the debate: peace with Gaul, or a reference to Galicia. That coin’s hammer, it says, was €52,500, the highest of the six.
• Wamba tremissis, Tude (Tui) mint, 672–680: gold, 1.35 g, 20.4 mm; the catalogue calls it unique.
• Half excelente of the pomegranate of the Catholic Monarchs, A Coruña mint: gold, 3.48 g, 21.7 mm.
• Half real of Philip II in silver, A Coruña, 1590: 1.59 g, 18.5 mm; the paper presents it as the first material proof of that denomination at that mint under that reign.

The €178,200 is the sum of 2025 hammers already cited in the pre-emption order. The listing decree does not set market prices again.