Nicomedia13

I've always loved the care Antioch mint lavished upon it's coins. That decanummium of yours is a little pearl. Mine aren't lookers, but two are from interesting western mints. My Maurice Tiberius Follis from Nicomedia mint looks like a stunted version of the big 40mm coins they were minting for Justinian, even featuring the characteristic elongated neck. The other two half folles are from Rome and Ravenna mints. The one from Rome was minted contemporaneously with the pontificate of Pope Gregory the Great, which is neat!

What a lovely example of Sear 125! I loved how cramped the legend is on these Justin/Justinian coins, which helps with attribution even when they are borderline illegible. I want to see an unworn Antioch facing bust issue from this series. The very best ones have the slightest outline of eyes and a nose and that is as good as they get. Has a mint one ever been published? It would be nice compare the faces of these experimental facing bust coins to the ones that would become standard issue after Justinian's coin reform. As always, Antioch mint gets another A+ for creative and attractive designs.

I was lucky enough to get to visit the Istanbul museum of archeology and see their tantalizing collection of Byzantine coins. Among hundreds of exemplary coins one stood out by far! Right in the middle of the display was a huge, roughly 41 mm coin I assumed was Justinian year XIII. After I looked closer and did a BIG double take it turned out to be a Constantine the Fourth!! The strike is perfectly centered and the quality of the engraving is unusually good by even the best standards of Byzantine coinage. I tried very hard to take a picture of it through the glass, but it didn’t do it justice. We all know what 7th century bronzes look like, and this one bucks every stereotype! My mind was BLOWN! Has anyone else seen one like this? It’s almost like a miracle for a bronze from this emperor to have a large flan, perfect strike, perfect centering, not be over struck on another coin, good die engraving, readable legends, and full weight. I included a picture with it circled in red for comparison with other Byzantine coins surrounding it. I wish we could see the reverse side!

Great coins! That profile bust Justinian from Antioch is one of my favorite coins in the whole Byzantine series. The portraits are consistently well executed, some times to a startling degree when compared to all other coins of the period. I suspect the influence of one very experienced die maker since they all have such a distinctive style. Perhaps as some of the first coins minted after the great earthquake, there was an attempt to hearken back to the glory days of Roman coin portraiture in order to bring legitimacy and pride to the newly rebuilt city of Theupolis. As for those unusual Heraclian coins, what a find! The fact they are minted at a full weight would also support your theory that they were being used for small change at a military mint. I would love to know more about the mysteries they no doubt contain.

What an unusually good strike. If only they were all so dead center on nice, round flans. Definitely a coin to treasure. My Justin II from Nikomedia is so ugly it’s not worth sharing, but rather, I’ll share my favorite anecdote about how the emperor’s mental breakdowns were calmed, quoted from John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium-The Early Years: “In these moods there was only one way to pacify him: to speak the name of Harith, the leader of a minor Arab tribe known as the Ghassanids. For reasons that were never altogether understood, this relatively unimportant chieftain inspired him with such terror that he instantly became quiet.” Sophia surely had her hands full carting him around the palace in a wheelbarrow whispering, “Harith… Harith… Harith..”. Better than having him jumping out windows I suppose!

Greetings from a longtime lurker on this forum. I finally had something happen worth posting about: While looking through some Byzantines in a big binder at a recent coin show, I happened upon a half follis attributed to Justinian II's first reign. It was the charming, pizza slice shaped variety made of quartered coins of Constantine IV- a variety I have been pining for! Fifty bucks and I walked away with it, knowing it would have cost at least $30 more to get online. After a quick look in Sear after getting home, I was baffled by the odd ANNO number which resembled the letter A. None of Justinian II's known half folli matched it. After another glance at the well rendered portrait's wide face with and thick beard, my heart skipped a beat. LEONTIUS! Even his trashy small bronzes always looked distinctive. A quick search confirmed my hunch. Leontius had two reginal numbers for his short tenure: A and B. Bingo! My day had been MADE as I suddenly held an immensely more desirable coin in my hand! :-D Although my example is pretty rough, the coins of Leontius have always stood out for their polished portraiture in a period of wild political upheaval, an empty treasury, and wars galore. The decision to make (relatively) realistic dies had to be very intentional. Was the usurper/nose splitter in chief trying legitimize his tenuous reign by making his coins stand out? After an average palace coup in this period, a poor farmer in the provinces would only be clued in to the new Basileus by the garbled/nonexistent legend on a poorly minted coin that he would probably be unable to read anyway. The portraiture barely changed from ruler to ruler. Leontius is a major exception and his idiosyncratic coins prove to be a bright spot in an otherwise dark period of Roman history. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Also, please post your favorite Leontius coins!