Rare! Lot of 11 Sri Lankan imitations of Roman coins, 400's AD

Various types, mostly GLORIA EXERCITVS two soldiers standing and FEL TEMP REPARATIO "soldier spearing horseman" type, but some other interesting types are included. 13-14mm, around 1.5 grams each. Mitchiner ACW #5165ff.

The price is for the group of 11 coins shown below.

Late Roman bronze coins and their local Sri-Lankan imitations, are found in Sri Lanka. It seems likely that enterprising Roman traders brought demonetized and worn small Roman coins from the Roman Empire (where they had almost no value) and brought them all the way to Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka the native coinage was crude, scarce and probably carried a much higher intrinsic value than in Rome or India. It is not inconceivable that all the Roman coins encountered in Sri Lanka come from only a few (if not one) such shipment of obsolete Roman coinage. If this is true, such trades might have taken place some times in the early 5th century CE. When more coins were needed (but not available), locally made imitations of these Roman coins were minted. The Sri Lankans obviously had no experience in minting coins - these are extremely crude and poorly made, never found well-struck and in high quality. They fascinating and unusual, showing stylized and misunderstood Roman designs. They probably remained in circulation for hundreds of years, until ca.8th century CE.