A rare Anastasius solidus?

[Bannerknight]

I finally got to buy my first Anastasius, a solidus. But interestingly, possibly a rarer variant with a cross on the diadem, instead of jewels. Does anyone know if it deserves to be called a rare variant? Some auction houses list it as such.

 

Sear 3, weight 4,46gr. | Ø 21mm. |

Obverse: Diademed with cross, helmeted and cuirassed bust of Anastasius three-quarter facing right, holding spear and shield, decorated with a horseman spearing a fallen foe, over his left shoulder, with legend D N ANASTA - SIVS P P AVG.

Reverse: Victory standing front, head to left, holding long jeweled cross in her right hand; in field to right star and CONO - B in exergue, with legend VICTORI - A AVGGG A. Graffiti (cross).

[ela126]

I did a quick ACsearch. These are without a doubt less common, probably on a 15:1 ratio, if not more rare. These AH’s universally didn’t mention it as a big deal though.

If you’re a collector of the bronze pieces, somewhat randomly and for not totally known reasons, there are prominent crosses on the diadem of Follis, half, and decas for Anastasius though the 530’s for Justinian. These are treasured a bit more than the examples without a cross, but don’t command a large premium in most cases. These are also considerably less common then the standard examples.

im guess this is somehow linked with your Solidi. Very handsome piece!

@Valentinian has a good write up on his website about the bronze coins.

[Rand]

Congratulations on your first Anastasius solidus!

Solidi with a cross on the helmet are certainly scarer than those with a trefoil and were likely produced early the reign, starting from 492 (one die is known with a PERP legend) and perhaps till 495-6. The reasons why they were produced are unclear, and they were issued in parallel to the standard variants. A relationship to Anastasius's personal (monophysitic) religious preferences is a possibility but is hard to decipher. The change was significant enough to be followed in the West for a similarly short period.

It is a scarser variant, but I would not call it rare for the Constantinople issue (well more than 100 is known).

 

[Bannerknight]

Thank you @Rand, I see that Sommer places solidi with the PERP legend and a retrograde A (Sommer 1.1, MIBE 3a) in the years 491-492, and notes that it may possibly be produced in Milan or by the Franks. While my issue (Sommer 1.2, MIBE 4) he dates to 492-507. Hahn in MIBE does not mention number 4 in his text, but the coin pictured there is with a trefoil in the diadem. Hahn places both issues in Constantinople. I am more than happy with my coin being of a scarcer issue!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Very nice!  It's always nice when a first is gold.  I only have two or three coins of his, and all are AE's.

Edited December 14, 2024 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[panzerman]

Very nice/ its the first time I see one like yours. Must be rare for sure....

[Rand]

Hmm. I am intrigued. I have never checked Sommer's catalogue as I thought it would be too generic, covering a very long period. I am only aware of a single PERP die with a cross with two coins from the same die pair (mine below and another from the Ratto Collection). Does Sommer have photos of solidi with the PERP legend and a retrograde A?

There is little doubt PERP solidi are from 491-492, and PP solidi are likely from 492-507. However, solidi with cross seem to have stopped much sooner than in 507, given their scarcity and relation to other dies, possibly in 495-496. Some dies with a cross are a bit unusual in style. I explored the possibility they could be from Antioch (similar to crosses on the copper from Antioch) but could not find evidence to support such a hypothesis.

 

[Bannerknight]

Dear @Rand, below you find the description of the PERP issue in Sommer. It is the best picture I could mange with my phone, but you clearly see the retrograde A in the picture. Your theory of Antioch is interesting, but I am not aware of any Antioch solidii from Anastasius. Sommer does list a PP solidus attributed to Theodoric in his book (Sommer 1.41, MIB 19), stating that this may also have been issued by the early Franks. I suppose it all comes down to dies and style.

 

It may be that Sommer gets some of his information from Tolstoi. He notes a PERP issue, attributing the obverse with a small cross on the diadem to Italy or North Africa (if I got my French right).

 

[Rand]

Thank you @Bannerknight. This is what I thought it would be. The shown solidus is a Western (probably Visigothic), and it does not have a cross (I have better photos of the coin). Inverted A was also used in Milan but slightly later (PP series). Tolstoi sadly does not show a photo of the coin. I really wish I could see the coins he referred to (could be the coin I showed above). The coin was not there when the Hermitage Museum put its collection online. When I asked the curator of the Hermitage Museum in St Peterburg, she kindly confirmed there were no Anastasius PERP solidi in the Hermitage nor in the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

[Bannerknight]

Dear @Rand, yours is a beautiful coin, nicer than the one pictured in Ratto. I see that Fagerlie (1967) notes 8 known examples of the PERP issue, of which only the Ratto coin has a cross on the diadem. She is also of the opinion that this issue predates the two standard emissions. 

Edited December 15, 2024 by Bannerknight

[Rand]

Fortunately, many more coins have appeared since 1967. I am aware of 163 coins of the PERP series (solidi, misses, and tremisses) from at least 5 and possibly up to 7 mints, so we can draw a much better numismatic picture of the period.

One important discovery of Fagerlie was a link between PERP and the 492-507 PP solidi from the Staatilishe Museum in Berlin. More than 50 years later the have been no advances here and that pair remains unique.

 

[LGeas]

Anastasius solidi with the "T" officina mark also have a cross on the helmet. To my knowledge, there is only 3 of those and they appeared on the market between 2022 and 2024, all from the same die pair, see for reference :

• Roma Numismatics - Auction XXIII - Lot 1158 (cf. picture below);
• Roma Numismatics - Auction XXVIII - Lot 702;
• CNG - Triton XXVII - Lot 6383.

They're attributed to an unidentified imperial mint (or Constantinople). From my POV, and based on, among other things, the way the letter "A" is engraved, they're neither imperial nor constantinopolitan but ostrogothic.

:

 

 

 

 

[Bannerknight]

1 hour ago, LGeas said:

Anastasius solidi with the "T" officina mark also have a cross on the helmet. To my knowledge, there is only 3 of those and they appeared on the market between 2022 and 2024, all from the same die pair, see for reference :

• Roma Numismatics - Auction XXIII - Lot 1158 (cf. picture below);
• Roma Numismatics - Auction XXVIII - Lot 702;
• CNG - Triton XXVII - Lot 6383.

They're attributed to an unidentified imperial mint (or Constantinople). From my POV, and based on, among other things, the way the letter "A" is engraved, they're neither imperial nor constantinopolitan but ostrogothic.

:

 

 

 

 

Interesting! In Roman times, Officina T was normally used for the third office mint, or for the Ticinum mint (T or TT in exergue) in Italy. If the coin is Ostrogothic, I suppose it might be an indication of Ticinum, although I thought that mint closed down in 326. It was, however, a prosperous town during Ostrogoth and Lombard times.

[Rand]

I missed all three for different reasons. I think these are very likely Ostrogothic, more likely from Milan or Ravenna (very good style, both mints used PP). The cross on the helmet may suggest an ealier period in the Anastasius reign. Also the composition fo The Mare Nostrum Hoard where they started appearing from indicates its complition around 493-495 with Anastasian solidi with crosses on the helmet being probably the latest included issues.

T might also be for Theoderic. I could not find die links for them, but there some solidi with stylistic similarities that could be evolving styles from the same mint. Below is a solidus I bought from Roma Numismatics, Auction XXV  22-23, Lot 1131 when Roma still marked them as from The Mare Nostrum Hoard.

[rasiel]

15 hours ago, Rand said:

 

Nice pics! Share your setup?

Rasiel

[Rand]

The photo is from the dealer - still working on my own setup.

For the database I use Filemaker Pro. It is a paid for software but works well, looks pleasant and saves time. 

 

[Hrefn]

I have one solidus of Anastasius with the cross on the helmet.  Purchased this year from Baldwin’s.  The type is certainly less common, and often is priced high because of purported barbarian origin.   I assume this is from Constantinople. 

[Tejas]

Interesting thread and beautiful coins shown here. 

Below is a solidus in the name of Anastasius from my collection.

The coin combines the cross on the diadem of the emperor with the western mintmark COMOB. It shows Victoria with the long cross and a  officina Theta (9).

1. The Long Cross

The composition with the long cross in the hand of Victoria can be traced back to the Persian war of the 420s, which was triggered by a persecution of Christians. The cross with two lines of dots probably refers to the jewelled gold cross that Emperor Theodosius II and his sister Pulcheria had erected on the site of Christ's crucifixion in Jerusalem to mark a victory reported in autumn 421. When Pulcheria came back to power in 450 and Marcianus became emperor by marrying her, they revived this type, which originally had a votive inscription, with the new legend VICTORIA AVGGG. The three GGGs do not stand for specifically three Augusti, but for the multitude of emperors who believed in the victorious cross and fought and would continue to fight for it. The long cross was replaced by the Chi-Rho cross with the new tax cycle (Indiction) in 507.

2. The cross on the helmet

Solidi that show a simple cross instead of the three-leafed frontal jewel (which indicates the Holy Trinity) on the emperor's diadem are relatively rare. One possible explanation is that they were intended to express the religious views of the emperor: Anastasius favoured Monophysitism (the doctrine of the single nature of Christ in the dispute over the divinity of Christ), which not only annoyed his empress Ariadne, but also led to political unrest. The diadem cross is also rarely found on Constantinopolitan copper coins, but regularly in Antioch, a centre of Monophysitism. The Greek, isosceles cross was particularly attractive to followers of this faith because of its symbolism. It also appears on Ostrogothic tremisses from Milan.

 

3. Mintmark and officina letter

At the end of the legend of the reverse of the Constantinopolitan solidi with the eastern mintmark CONOB, there is almost always a Greek letter with which (according to the Milesian numerical alphabet) the ten offices (Alpa, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Digamma, Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota) were numbered. As a result of a long period of minting, Anastasius solidi of this type (MIB 4) are very numerous from all the offices. The most common pieces (about 40%) come from the tenth office (Iota - I). 

My solidus below shows the office theta (9) in combination with the western mintmark COMOB. Since the western mints did not mint in 10 (or 9) offices, it can be assumed that the Greek theta in this case is to be understood as an initial (TH) for Theoderic. The same is true for the officina T, which does not exist and most likely indicates the authority of Theoderic. Ticinum had no active mint at the time and cannot have been the place of production of coins with officina letter T.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2024 by Tejas

[Al Kowsky]

I sold the example pictured below at a Heritage auction about 7 years ago, it fetched $960.00 ☺️.

 

[Bannerknight]

2 hours ago, Tejas said:

Interesting thread and beautiful coins shown here. 

Below is a solidus in the name of Anastasius from my collection.

The coin combines the cross on the diadem of the emperor with the western mintmark COMOB. It shows Victoria with the long cross and a  officina Theta (9).

1. The Long Cross

The composition with the long cross in the hand of Victoria can be traced back to the Persian war of the 420s, which was triggered by a persecution of Christians. The cross with two lines of dots probably refers to the jewelled gold cross that Emperor Theodosius II and his sister Pulcheria had erected on the site of Christ's crucifixion in Jerusalem to mark a victory reported in autumn 421. When Pulcheria came back to power in 450 and Marcianus became emperor by marrying her, they revived this type, which originally had a votive inscription, with the new legend VICTORIA AVGGG. The three GGGs do not stand for specifically three Augusti, but for the multitude of emperors who believed in the victorious cross and fought and would continue to fight for it. The long cross was replaced by the Chi-Rho cross with the new tax cycle (Indiction) in 507.

2. The cross on the helmet

Solidi that show a simple cross instead of the three-leafed frontal jewel (which indicates the Holy Trinity) on the emperor's diadem are relatively rare. One possible explanation is that they were intended to express the religious views of the emperor: Anastasius favoured Monophysitism (the doctrine of the single nature of Christ in the dispute over the divinity of Christ), which not only annoyed his empress Ariadne, but also led to political unrest. The diadem cross is also rarely found on Constantinopolitan copper coins, but regularly in Antioch, a centre of Monophysitism. The Greek, isosceles cross was particularly attractive to followers of this faith because of its symbolism. It also appears on Ostrogothic tremisses from Milan.

 

3. Mintmark and officina letter

At the end of the legend of the reverse of the Constantinopolitan solidi with the eastern mintmark CONOB, there is almost always a Greek letter with which (according to the Milesian numerical alphabet) the ten offices (Alpa, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Digamma, Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota) were numbered. As a result of a long period of minting, Anastasius solidi of this type (MIB 4) are very numerous from all the offices. The most common pieces (about 40%) come from the tenth office (Iota - I). 

My solidus below shows the office theta (9) in combination with the western mintmark COMOB. Since the western mints did not mint in 10 (or 9) offices, it can be assumed that the Greek theta in this case is to be understood as an initial (TH) for Theoderic. The same is true for the officina T, which does not exist and most likely indicates the authority of Theoderic. Ticinum had no active mint at the time and cannot have been the place of production of coins with officina letter T.

 

 

Thank you, @Tejas, for a most interesting write-up, and for sharing this very interesting coin.

[Rand]

I also think that religious views played a role, reflecting Anastasius's views and the pushback.

At some point, I will calculate how long the main 'cross' issue lasted based on the proportion of the 'trefoil' style.

What puzzles me is that the 'trefoil' and 'cross' varieties were minted in parallel. What could the interpretations of this be?

I think the solidi by @LGeas, @Tejas, and mine above are from the same period and mint, more likely Milan, less likely Ravenna. There are big gaps in our knowledge of the continuity of these mints until they were closed late in Theodoric's reign. As such, solidi with a cross may have represented a period that paralleled one in Constantinople.

I don't know where to place my 'cross' solidus below. I am pretty certain it is Western and has a Theta as well. Speaking of Theta and T, I think they refer to the Thedoric and are contemporary to Theta solidi from Rome.

 

 

 

[Tejas]

If the mintmark is CONOB, it would be an issue from Constantinople, 9th officina, it it is COMOB, the coin was probably minted in Milan and the Theta indicates the authority of Theoderic.

[Rand]

Not necesseraly. All Anastasius solidi with mint-mark of Milan had CONOB, not COMOB. Like this my solidus.

[Tejas]

Yes, but the coin in question had no MD-mintmark. Thus, if it shows COMOB (which I think it does) it is from a western mint (probably Milan). If it is CONOB, I think it is from Constantinople.

[Rand]

Returning to the 'cross on helmet' type…
When started collecting Anastasian coins, I had four 'discovery aims' – to identify Anastasian gold coins minted in:

• Antioch
• Alexandria
• Carthage
• England (the only one that has some prospect at present)

A cross seemed expected on Antioch coins; the closest contestant was this coin.

It is not obvious from the photo, but the coin stands out on a page with other Constantinople solidi. The 'oversized' portrait is more raised from the flan than any other Anastasius solidus I have seen. It dominates the flan. It looks so odd that I thought it could be a fake until a die-match was noted from a 19th-century Karsibór hoard.

It has other unusual features

• A mixture of Λ and A letters with Λ not used in Constantinople
• An unusual spear tip position at the helmet level (always lower on Constantinople, solidi).
• An unusual Victoria style. Her wing has a separate strand outside, completely different from Constantinople solidi.
• Despite being in about EF condition with no clipping, the weight is somewhat low: 4.37 g.

It has some resemblance in portrait style to Antioch solidi of Zeno: NOT MY COIN

Overall, I think it is unlikely to be produced in Constantinople mint, but also I have not been able to find evidence to link it to Antioch. It could be Western, given that the die-match was found along the old route to the Baltic-Scandinavian region.

 

A couple of typical Constantinople solidi from my collection below for comparison.