Solidus minted in Constantinople. He was nicknamed "Bulgar Slayer" for his record vs Bulgars in battles.
That is the fascinating aspect in coin collecting, so much history behind the coins design/ruler/period in history/provenance.
Very true Mat. Go back in time to the "good old days" in US....say 1921. You then could take a $20 bill, redeem it for a pristine St. Gaudens Double Eagle. The dimes/quarters/halves/dollars were silver. They actually printed $500$1000/$5000/$10000 paper currency. No plastic credit cards/ no bitcoins(whatever they are? Heck, the money was so nice looking you would want to keep it back then. So, have we progressed? I think only time will tell. 0
Nice, but it was actually Basil II who was known as the Bulgar slayer, Here is my follis of Basil I.. BASIL I, with CONSTANTINE. 868-879 AD. Æ Follis Constantinople mint. Basil and Constantine enthroned, each crowned and wearing loros, holding labarum between them / +BASILIO S COnSTAn TInOS En QO BASILEIS ROMAIOn. DOC III 9a; SB 1710.
Another sweet golden-winner, panzerdawg ... congrats!! Ummm, all I can do is add my two examples from this rare coin-century (the 9th century AD) Carolingians, Charles le Chauve AR Denar 840-877 Leo VI the Wise AE Follis 886-912 cheers!!
Another amazing piece. You should set up a website for your amazing collection of Roman/Byzantine gold - similar to what TIF and Ancient Joe have done.
Nice coins Steve! I really like the Carolingian AR Denar. I see Charles on the TV series "Vikings" love that ...
I would love to: But I am a klutz when it comes to tech stuff. Would be a neat idea, even better for the World material!
Awesome coin, but I think you might have made a mistake, Basil I was not the Bulgar slayer, Bulgar II was, I'm pretty sure Bulgar I was nicknamed"The Macedonian" But that doesn't matter much, awesome coin!
The Bulgar slayer being the Byzantine emperor who had the entire Bulgarian army blinded, except for one guy who was allowed to retain one eye so he could lead the army back to Bulgaria. And didn't the Bulgarian king die of a heart attack after seeing the ghoulish sight of his blinded 10,000 man army returning? That's what I remember of the tale anyway.
mostly true, actually he had 100 men to be left with one eye, 1 one eyed man to lead 99 blind men, in 100 groups of 100
