Theodoric the Great - 1/4 siliqua very rare (D2462)

Theoderic (493-526), Quarter-siliqua, Rome, AD 518-527 , AR, 0.67 g, 11 mm, DNIVSTA NVSPAVC, diademed and drapped bust r., Rv. Monogram, below cross, all in crown. MEC 1, 121; BMC Vand 51.31var.; MIB I, pl. 38.49; Kent 1971, 26. Rare. very fine. 

The Ostrogothic king Theodoric ruled Italy for more than three decades more successfully than any Roman emperor in over a century. Although he ruled with de facto autonomy, he tactfully maintained the fiction that he controlled the West as the agent of the East Roman Emperor, as seen on this rare quarter-siliqua of Rome. The obverse bears the name and titles (and presumably portrait) of the East Roman Emperor Justin I (AD 518-527), while the reverse has Theodoric's name in monogram form.