Thanks! Sorry, the reverse photo is not great. A lot of these Byzantine coins were weakly struck, esp. the legends.
I remain amazed at how good the gold is compared to the bronzes of the same rulers. A bronze half this clear would be considered a nice specimen. I do not have a Leontius.
Great point Doug... Esp. when you consider GOLD is a very soft metal. One reason, I think is that many gold coins were hoarded/some even collected back then/and when found in saltwater shipwrecks, buried in pots/ walls/soil remain virtually as left...silver/copper coins on the otherhand will suffer corrosive effects from sea water/contaminates in soil etc. Then, also copper/ was heavily used by everyday populations, silver by merchants, what was then the "middle class", while gold was primarily for the upper classes/ used to pay off guys like Atilla, Genseric, Shapur II etc., peace at all costs.
gorgeous! i don't have one of this guy either...but yeah...the bronze coins of him (like many of his fellow byzantines) aren't the most attractive things.
