ela126

This is true, I have to look at it again. The previous cleaning wasn’t done well so I may do some minor fixes at least.

@Tejas Very cool, never saw one of these before. @DigginSicilia No, it's just a dirty coin. some poeple like them this way, i'm more of a cleaner, so it's currently soaking in some DI. i'll probably remove the dirt and wax it next week

Glad this thread was revived. I have learned something I’ve thought was gibberish for some time now! That’s a wonderfully explanation in the original post @Valentinian and good to see you @quant.geek I’ve followed your Forum collection for some time

A new acquisition came in, purchased from a fellow Byzantine collector, Steve Santore. Now that im attuned to them, im finding they’re a little more common than I did a few weeks ago. Could be due to the high volume of lower end offerings in Biddr these days. Justin 1 - Follis - Nikomedia - SB 84 -14.6g. Not an impressive specimen but the cross is quite prominent. My first Justin 1 specimen

2 more very pleasant examples. Low wear on the high points, and no dirt obscuring anything. Super nice. I was a bit in the same boat regarding these pieces. Initially my 2nd and 3rd Byzantine pieces were Anonymous Follis and I was a little turned off on the obvious religious theme of the coins. I wanted coins, not Christian relics.. so I stayed away for quite some time. Now that I’ve learned quite a bit more, and understand the coins during this period, I also appreciate them. I’ve assembled a few good ones in the collection. I’m not directly seeking out more, but if a good one were in front of me, I’d be happy to pick it up.

I have to give credit to Nimrod Numismatics (newer AH on biddr, they had a nice Byzantine selection), I emailed Kristian before the auction about the shipping, which in terms were listed as DHL 50 euros, Germany to US. Very accommodatingly, I was told less expensive options are available. I won 4 coins on auction and Kristian managed to get me tracked shipping for 25 euros, which is definitely acceptable.

cool find. i think the monogram is just Constans II's name (Κώνστας) in Greek. A lot of Sicilian coinage has it. Pretty cool how its integrated with the K.

Really great obverse on this thing. A solid purchase, one to be happy with. I’ve seen plenty of good A2’s but good A3s don’t seem as common. (Granted this isn’t an area I’m super familiar with) Mentioning Byzantine coins one didn’t need to buy but did, I might have too many to list. Recent one I can stand behind a little bit due to rarity, but maybe not its overall quality.. Constantine IV - Follis (the return of the big ones! For a little while) - Constantinople - SB 1173 - 15.54g (likely 20g for the full flan). I bought this very dirty (and damaged already). The doubling on the portrait became obvious, which was a bit of a letdown, but the low wear/high detail on the reverse was really welcome, never really see non circulated examples like this. I only assume the flan broke on minting or soon after. Some corrosion and striking flatness but what are you gonna do.

Wonder examples. Really like the quality of your collection @ewomack. Portraits on all of them look excellent. Yes from what I could tell, I think Alexander and Basil has a half follis, then not really much of anything. What strikes me though is in the late 10th/early 11th, the folli were 15-20g, but there’s no smaller coinage?! Seems odd from how it was in the in the 6th century with almost too many denominations to count! There is a random half follis during Michael VII, SB 1880A I believe (might be the same Nicephorus III you’re mentioning), ~. Seems very random how it appears in 1071, but DOC and Sear both recognize. That’s it though, once the tertateron and half start up though; they work well as small change again.

interesting information, thank you for Assembling @Prieure de Sion. is Deutsche post an option? I actually like when AH's ship their local options as the letters are sometimes fun. I must say the arguement you present, while it is valid, just discourages me from bidding from AH's who are doing the correct methods. I have a rather hard rule where shipping can never be more than 10% of my purchase. While this is no problem for Tetradrachm and gold purchases, a bronze collector must be choosey where they buy from due to this.

As a US buyer from Europe, who is only buying 200-600 euro purchases. The huge variance in shippping costs are frustrating from the different AH's. I see anywhere from 15 euro for basic, uninsured post. Up to 50 euro and beyond DHL uninsured post. This isn't brining up insurance, which i'm sure expands cost by another 5-15%. AH's are not doing themselves a service by only offering high cost options as it directly discourages bidding on their auctions. Making profit in 1 area by sacrificing in another...

@ewomack @Valentinian I absolutely love these Heraclius. I am very jealous and I want one since I lost out several weeks ago on an auction. Beautiful

Posting for the sake of making a post, I thought I’d highlight something I stumbled upon that is interesting. I’ve had an attractive enough Theophilus (829-842) Follis for some time now that I thought was pretty neat. An SB 1667 from Constantinople. These seem to have pretty good portraits rather often and aren’t terribly tough to come across. Want to say I got this one for under $40. What struck me as interesting is the size of it at 8.69g is rather hefty, when coming out of the late 8th and early 9th century coins in the 4-7g range. However, while half follis (and even smaller denominations) did exist in the early-mid 8th century, they seem to have fallen out of fashion by the late 8th. Cue my random find of a Theophilus Half-Follis, SB 1668 from Constantinople. I never thought about these coins and it was a rather random auction buy at $30. I now find these aren’t rare either and this is an average struck example. What does strike me as interesting is the size compared to the Follis. This thing is tiny by comparison at 2.68g! Less than a 3rd the follis. Now we all know by this time the bronze weights were not closely monitored but this is a case where the common public would be able to tell the difference, even though most examples have no differing marks (some half follis have an additional small cross at the bottom right of the legend). Looking later though, it seems half follis quickly fell out of favor again, with a small handful of undertermined mints putting them out, but really, not many at all. Did people have another method of doing very small transactions? I can’t say what the follis to solidi ratio was at this point. please share any 8th it 9th century small denominations you may have!

Ya that’s a decent thought, if you don’t like it clean it all

This coin screams “clean me” to me, with easy looking dirt. Love the detail available. Can’t offer any help though. nice coin!

@ewomack has done a good job explaining. the other I believe critical point here is the crown of Maurice uses the Trefoil \|/ as seen on your coin, I believe Tiberius used a cross. That’s the easiest difference when Regnal year doesn’t clarify

In definitely thrilled with the Byzantine threads. Wish I had more time to offer with my posts. (Job and 2 kids… wife too) Here’s another one I have. Not a beauty either as someone ruined the patina. (seems like I have a lot of ugly coins..) this is a Constantine IV, decanummi from Constantinople, reason I bought it was the weight, 6.4g on a decanummi… One can quickly see there is an exegue missing and in place what looks like a crowned face and maybe 2 others. Never actually thought about it til right now but I’m thinking the undertype is a Constans II sb 1013. The heads seem to match well.

I have 2 Heraclius Folli which were both overstruck from Maurice Tiberius pieces. neither are beautiful, with patina issues, but interesting none the less. There is a poorly struck sb 844, in a bit worse condition that your own. The obverse is decent enough, although the reverse is not well centered. However that left the distinct lettering of TIBERPPAV in the 9-11 o clock to likely identify it as a Maurice Tiberius follis from Constantinople as an under type. the second one is even more ugly but for 3 dollars, why not. The over type is a bit hard to see, 2 figures on the obverse and the M with a barely discernible CON point to an SB 810. The under type is a bit easier here with a rather clear THEUP, ANNO and even the year 7 on the over type’s obverse. On the reverse the MITICO and the mantled bust likely mean this coin is a SB 532 as the under type. Admittedly I’m not a fan of these and don’t chase them, but cool to show how the coins travel, being overstruck at other mints than the original.

Welcome! Yes, this is a good place for some discussions. As with any Byznatine community, it is rather small but some major experts are part of the Forum. If you're not using them already, some other great resources for Byzantine are: Byzantine coins, Introduction (augustuscoins.com) A Numis Forum member runs this page. I learned a great deal here. Byzantine Coins in the WildWinds DataBank, Indexed by Sear Byzantine Coins and Their Values Number Superb Sear number lookup with pictures. Catalog (labarum.info) excellent lookup tool Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine DOC online.. excellent you are correct on your Class E coin. For your second coin you have a Constantine X, named follis. So it's not anonymous as that's constantine X on the reverse.. SB 1854.

First off, I want to say I was first informed and inspired to start collecting these coins after reading @Valentinian‘s website which has a very detailed and well assembled review of an impressive collection of these. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ByzCross/Cross-above-head.html These coins are specialized obverse dies with a prominent cross on the top of the diadem. After somewhat seriously collecting in this area for I’d say 2 years now, I’m even more impressed by that collection, some of these coins are very scarce. My recommendation for any collector of Byzantine is if you come across these at a reasonable price, get them. I won’t go into the details or background on the coins as Warren has done a much better job already, but I did want to show them as I recently acquired 2 of the 3. the sand patina one is not “new”. Acquired 5-6 months ago, an Anastasius 1 from Antioch, SB 47. The best of the bunch though. the 2 news ones are: Anastasius 1 Follis Antioch 17.11g SB 48- Take note of the crescent on the right of reverse, this is what makes it different, and more rare, than the SB 47. Anastasius 1 Pentanummi Antioch 2.86g SB53A This coin, while not super pretty is special, not just because of the cross on the obverse, but due to the placement of the A and Z inside the E on the reverse, instead of outside, flanking the officina letter, which a standard SB 53 has. I'm going to continue my searches for these as they are rare and interesting pieces. If you have any of these special coins with crosses, please share!

Awesome find! That’s a rare one

@CaveBear2 Good check with the selller and acknowledgment of the red flag. Anyone who comes across ultra rarities isn't doing this by accident. If it's truly interesting, someone put in effort to get it and very unlikely to forget. i had a thought it might fake be but didnt think to look here. I have noticed this save background, possibly from the same seller on Ebay. A lot of odd styled coins, maybe best to steer away completely.

@JeandAcre hah i appareciate the frustration on the wrong area. i had initally thought this to be an Trebonzid example (and considerably more valuable). so i had it in the Byzantine section. only once i realized the AH had the flan flipped (and after i won for more than i wanted) did i realize this was a 3rd tpye Tancred... Still cool but i was hoping it was a Trebizond piece. and iguess never switched it. When i was into getting coins graded by NGC i was continuously puzzled on the classification system for ancient and medieval with Byzantine versus evertyrthing else. One can have a circa 800 Carolingian piece, fitting the modern grading system (main concern for me 3 years ago was getting the feared "cleaned" tag), but a Starvaton made in 1440 had Ancient grading standards applied. (of course i realize now grading is irrelevant, but at the time i was very concerned). Wonderful piece by the way, i need to clean this one up to see whats under it's dirt.

I’ve been filling out my 11th century recently. Some decent examples, and a slightly liberal use of saturation with the photo editor. Class A2 Basil II and Constantine VIII, 976 - 1025 A.D. Sear 1813 13.5g Romanus IV Diogenes (1068-1071 AD) SB 1866 13.8g Michael VII Ducas (1071-1078 AD) Half follis - potentially - die match and weight match to a CNG example Sear 1880a 4.55g Michael VII. 1071-1078 Follis Sear 1878 6.1g Class I Anonymous Nicephorus III, 7 January 1078 – 1 April 1081 Follis Sear 1889 5.3g Alexius 1 - 1081-1118 Tetarteron Thessalonica mint SB 1931 2.8g

Pretty pleasing Constantine VII. SB 1761. Not a great flan but the portrait is pretty good. still need to get a Romanus some time.