a. and sb. [f. It. contorno circuit, contour: so F. contorniate adj. fem.]
A. adj. Of a medal or coin: Having a deep furrow round the disc, within the edge.
1692. O. Walker, Grk. & Rom. Hist., 25. Medals Contorniate, tho of a bad Master, are rare.
1855. Hopkins & Rimbault, Organ (1877), 12. A contorniate coin of the Emperor Nero.
1889. S. W. Stevenson, Dict. Rom. Coins, s.v., Contorniate medals present this peculiarity, that there is scarcely ever any apparent connexion between the obverse and the reverse.
B. sb. A medal (or coin) having such a furrowed circumference: applied by modern numismatists to certain brass pieces of Nero and other Roman emperors, the purpose of which is uncertain.
1823–5. T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq. (1843), 973. Contorniates … are mostly between two and three inches [in] diameter.
1850. Leitch, trans. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 207. 198. The contorniati distributed at public games.
1889. S. W. Stevenson, Dict. Rom. Coins, s.v., All writers appear … to agree in considering that contorniates were not of the nature and value of money … All contorniates are of brass.
