German medieval penny of byzantine style

[Tejas]

Below is an interesting penny, which copies a Byzantine soldius. These pennies are believed to have been minted at Mainz around AD 1000. 

Literature: Dannenberg 1240; Slg. Walther -; Slg. Pick I (Auktion Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. 405) - (vgl. 15).

This penny was attributed to Emperor Heinrich II (1004- 2024). However, this attribution is speculative. I think it is possible that the coin was minted earlier, by Theophanu, who had been the wife and co-empress of Otto II and regent in her own right from 982 to 995. Theophanu was a member of the Byzantine imperial family and it is recorded that she arrived in Germany with a large entourage of artists and craftsmen who exerted a strong influence on art and architecture in Germany. However, what is certainly true is that Henrich II minted coins in the Byzantine style, which I think is the reason why these coins are attributed to him.
 

Edited March 24 by Tejas

[ela126]

very cool, style is 100% Byzantine except for the cross. I've never come across such a thing, although i haven't looked either.

[Kali]

Wonderful coin.

[Tejas]

Thanks, yes these pennies are very rare. Given that pennies of the 10th and early 11th century had a well established and recognizable style it is very curious why these coins were struck. As mentioned before there are pennies of Heinrich II in the Byzantine style, but they are quite different to the piece above. 

The standard reference for German medieval coins: Hermann Dannenberg "Die deutschen Münzen der sächsischen und fränkischen Kaiserzeit"  attributed them to an uncertain ruler. 

The model for these silver pennies was apparently a solidus of Theophilus (829-842) on the obverse and his deceased father Michael II and his deceased son Constantin on the reverse (Sear 1653). I suppose, such coins could have still been in circulation at the time of Theophanou.

(the solidus is not mine)

 

Edited March 24 by Tejas

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Wow, that is pretty cool!

[JeandAcre]

Amazing, @Tejas.  I'm a fan of the much commoner Salian imitative types, and have a modest assemblage of them (all of which I'm sure have been posted more than once).  But your attribution of this to Theophanu is as cogent as it is fascinating, both in its specificity and its broader historical resonance.  Clearly, she and her entourage were a key influence in the appropriation of Byzantine visual rhetoric by the succeeding dynasty. 

...Not to mention a dynastic influence as late as the Staufen!  Give me a minute to finish my coffee, and I'll post a fun example along those lines.

[Ursus]

Great coin! A possible connection to Otto II's marriage to Theophanu seems plausible to me, in particular because we see a remarkable Byzantine influence in late 10th century German manuscript illumination, textiles and jewelry. Art historians explain this by Byzantine artworks and crafts having been brought west by Theophanu and her entourage. It is reasonable to assume that the same happened with coins, too.

2 hours ago, ela126 said:

very cool, style is 100% Byzantine except for the cross. I've never come across such a thing, although i haven't looked either.

There are numerous German 10th/11th century coins that copy Byzantine and/or late Roman models. All of them are exceedingly rare and somewhat mysterious: mint, date and moneyer are typically unknown.

Here is a plate from Dannenberg (the catalogue @Tejas referred to above) for illustration:

[Tejas]

Interesting, do you happen to have a picture of the plate with no. 1240 from the Dannenberg book?

[seth77]

The presence of Theophanou and her entourage, court and artisans is a very elegant and likely explanation for this "Byzantine" German coinage. I also think that the coin is likely pre-1000 considering the style and flan. What does it measure/weigh?

[JeandAcre]

As threatened, here’s an example of Byzantine ties as late as the Staufen; granted, this time dynastic but not numismatic.

German empire.  Philipp von Schwaben, son of Friedrich Barbarossa; ‘King of the Romans’ 1198-1208 (assassinated before he could be crowned as Emperor).  Denar /pfennig of Wetzlar.  (Blundered legends.)

 

Citing a reference which I know of only from ACsearch: Havernick 321.  

Philipp married Eirene, daughter of Emperor Isaak II Angelos; already the widow of Roger, joint king of Norman Sicily with his brother, William III. –Yes, regarding Byzantine rhetoric and, when possible, dynastic ties, the Normans were on exactly the same page!

[JeandAcre]

56 minutes ago, Tejas said:

Interesting, do you happen to have a picture of the plate with no. 1240 from the Dannenberg book?

@Tejas, here's a link that someone or other kindly posted a few years ago.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=dannenberg 

And here's what I hope might be a more specific link to the plates of vol. 1.  In .pdf; you have to scroll down almost halfway to get Plate 1240.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=dannenberg

(Instant edit: Nope, sorry; it goes right back to the more general page.)

Edited March 24 by JeandAcre

[Tejas]

That is very helpful, many thanks for the links. Here is the picture from Dannenberg, table 55, no. 1240.

My coin weighs 1.45 g. 

Besides Dannenberg, tab. 55, no. 1240. Another pieces was recorded as Collection Pick I (Auction Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. 405 - 15. ). If anybody happens to have this catalog, I would be very interested in a picture.

 

The only other piece I could find in an auction is this one: 

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=567287

Here it is also attributed to Heinrich II (or his time) and Mainz or Verdun. 

Interestingly, Theophanu used the title Emperor instead of Empress and called herself Theophanius in official documents, probably because a woman could not normally be emperor in her own right, or because the title empress was reserved for the emperor’s wife. Hence, she was known as Theophanius gratia divina imperator augustus" .

I really like the idea that she may have commissioned this issue during her reign as Roman Emperor.

Edited March 24 by Tejas

[seth77]

1 hour ago, Tejas said:

That is very helpful, many thanks for the links. Here is the picture from Dannenberg, table 55, no. 1240.

My coin weighs 1.45 g. 

Besides Dannenberg, tab. 55, no. 1240. Another pieces was recorded as Collection Pick I (Auction Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. 405 - 15. ). If anybody happens to have this catalog, I would be very interested in a picture.

 

The only other piece I could find in an auction is this one: 

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=567287

Here it is also attributed to Heinrich II (or his time) and Mainz or Verdun. 

Interestingly, Theophanu used the title Emperor instead of Empress and called herself Theophanius in official documents, probably because a woman could not normally be emperor in her own right, or because the title empress was reserved for the emperor’s wife. Hence, she was known as Theophanius gratia divina imperator augustus" .

I really like the idea that she may have commissioned this issue during her reign as Roman Emperor.

That would explain the rarity, not just the design. And with such a multitude of types being struck by the German mints, I wonder why the attribution to Mainz or Verdun. Does it show stilistic characteristics to those mints? And if Theophanou's coinage one would assume that it was tied to her personally rather than a local mint, no?

[Hrefn]

Outstanding coin and piece of history.  Kudos.  

[JAZ Numismatics]

I had no idea German imitations of Byzantine coins even existed. Thank you for the post!

[Ursus]

15 hours ago, Tejas said:

Interesting, do you happen to have a picture of the plate with no. 1240 from the Dannenberg book?

Sure – here you go [EDIT: Oops, I am too late – I've just seen that @JeandAcre already found a digital facsimile and posted it above]:

And here is a quick picture of the relevant page from Dannenberg's catalogue, just in case you don't have it at hand. Note that his argument for an attribution to Heinrich II per se only applies to Dannenberg 1239, for which he sees a stylistic similarity to Dannenberg 788, which can be safely attributed to Heinrich II. Dannenberg 1240 and following are only mentioned in this context as further examples of German coins copying Byzantine models, but the author does not attribute them to any parrticular mint and ruler.

Edited March 25 by Ursus

[Tejas]

Super, thanks a lot for this. I suppose the main reason for attributing these coins (i.e. 1240) to Mainz is the fact that the mint produced pennies in the Byzantine style for Heinrich II (1002-1024). Dannenberg makes no mentioning of Theophanu. Instead, he seems to suggest that these coins were produced after the end of the Ottonian pennies, i.e. after the death of Otto III. Apparently, Mainz was an important hub at the time, where a lot of foreign gold (i.e. Byzantine gold coins) circulated, which may have given rise to the silver imitations. 

However, at least to me the style of the Byzantine-German pennies from Mainz under Heinrich II looks different to that of the OP coin, which could point to a different mint or a different (earlier) time. I suppose without further evidence from hoards, it will likely be impossible to shed more light on this mysterious series.

Edited March 25 by Tejas

[JeandAcre]

8 hours ago, Ursus said:

Sure – here you go [EDIT: Oops, I am too late – I've just seen that @JeandAcre already found a digital facsimile and posted it above]:

And here is a quick picture of the relevant page from Dannenberg's catalogue, just in case you don't have it at hand. Note that his argument for an attribution to Heinrich II per se only applies to Dannenberg 1239, for which he sees a stylistic similarity to Dannenberg 788, which can be safely attributed to Heinrich II. Dannenberg 1240 and following are only mentioned in this context as further examples of German coins copying Byzantine models, but the author does not attribute them to any parrticular mint and ruler.

@Ursus, No you weren't!  The best I could do was the link itself.

[DLTcoins]

The most interesting thing is that it's such an exact copy of the prototype. The legends, to the extent they are visible, are reproduced perfectly.

[Tejas]

Yes, that is true. The die sinker seems to have copied the dies directly from an original solidus. My question is why these Byzantine coins were copied in Germany (and indeed in other countries, including Denmark and Russia). Were the originals so widely available that people were familiar with the designs?

[Rand]

Were they made for local use or could somehow be related to the first crusade, which would mean being minted later. Even if produced by Emperor Heinrich II this would already be more than a century gap from the original coin.

[Tejas]

I think they circulated only locally. At least I have seen no suggestion that these coins were related to the crusades. Also, I don‘t think that these coins were minted by or for Heinrich II. A ruler normally wants his name and (if possible) portrait on his coins. I think the speculative suggestion is only that these coins date to the time of Heinrich II. Heinrich was the first Salian emperor after the death of the last Saxon emperor Otto III (the son of Otto II and Theophanu) in 1002. The coins of the Saxon emperors have little decoration and variation - only crosses and legends, basically. However, I read an article „Spuren der Theophanu in der ottonischen Schatzkunst“ by Hiltrud Westermann-Ankerhausen, in which the author explains that the Byzantine influence in Germany increased significantly in the second half of the 10th century. This is not just due to Theophanu‘s arrival in 972. Instead, Otto‘s II marriage to Theophanu is more likely due to the increased relations and exchanges at the time. Embassies between the German and the Byzantine Emperors went back and forth. Importantly, the author writes the the Germans were eager to absorb and emulate these eastern influences. This is probably the background to the coin above, the Ottonian Renaissance and its focus on the Byzantine empire. 

A member of this forum @Ursus, sent me an article about the Byzantine influence on European coins „Der byzantinische Einfluss auf die Münzen Mitteleuropas vom 10. bis 12. Jahrhundert“ by Arthur Suhle, which shows that these imitations appeared in several different countries, including in particular Denmark. I think that the OP coin has to be seen in this context, when it was apparently „en vogue“ to copy Byzantine art. Suhle wonders if the OP coins were minted in conjunction with a particular embassy of 1002. However, he dismisses this because coins of contemporary Byzantine emperors were known as well and it would have been strange to copy a coin that was 200 years old at the time. The author also shows that Byzantine coins were well known in Germany in the 10th and 11th century, with various documents denominating payments in „byzantine gold pieces“. 

 

[JeandAcre]

In the case of the pennings of Svend Estridsen of Denmark (1047-1075 --not my coin)

I read somewhere they were modelled on the vast amounts of Byzantiine gold that Harald Hardrada took back to Norway from his extensive career in the Varangian Guard.

[Dwarf]

On 3/24/2024 at 9:46 PM, Tejas said:

Another pieces was recorded as Collection Pick I (Auction Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. 405 - 15. ). If anybody happens to have this catalog, I would be very interested in a picture

Your description just states that the coin is missing in the Pick collection. Here the link to lot #15 - which is far away!

https://www.coinarchives.com/w/openlink.php?l=1067151|988|15|958cae9fb06597fa00f4f8fde4beec5e

Regards
Klaus