The artistic beauty of Byzantium coins

Before collecting coins I was found of art history particularly Byzantium art and Roman art among other subjects, even I was following the art history courses at The Louvre museum in Paris and now retired early of business I follow courses about Celtic arts history and comparative art.

when I decided to began a small selective collection of Byzantine coinage I focus it on the best quality I can afford to enjoy the artistic value of Byzantium coinage.

It very difficult to find about XF or XF Byzantium coins as you know so it is a pretty small collection with some coins from famous old collection like the Lemenstoll collection. I hope to add each year 2 to 3 coins of high end grade if possible.

so first for the gold section one tremissis of Theodore II that to my opinion is the beginning of Byzantium art in Roman coinage

Theodore II tremissis RIC 213 / 269



From Elsen and sons

 

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Constant II sear 956 Solidus



From Elsen & sons

 

Gold coins are almost always better than silver or base coins, but personally, I do not care for the "artistry" of Byzantine era coins. The portraiture seem to be cartoonish as compared to Greek or early Roman coinage. Just my opinion. Everyone has one (opinion) just as we all have certain body orifices.

 

You are not alone to find too childish the art of Byzantium coinage, this is certainly less collectors are willing to buy them.

 

I like Byzantine Coins because they tell the story of a life or death struggle that the Romans eventually lost and are now almost gone as a people. I find the story starts much sooner at the time of Diocletian's reforms. So I collect from Diocletian to the fall of the Empire exclusively.

 

..i've got a few, but not really into those coins per say...

 

I like to read about Byzantine history and I am an admirer of the Byzantine people who were able to defend themselves, more or less, from every two bit conqueror to constant waves of barbarian hordes. For much of history the Empire fielded the best trained and equipped troops (and navy) of any existing people. I visited Constantinople (OK, Istanbul) and very much grew to appreciate their architecture and their artistry in mosaics is breathtaking, but that said, I could never warm up to their coinage. From frozen solemnity to illegible, metallic mud pies, the best I can say for their coinage is, there was a lot of it.

 

Now for silver in fact it is billon, a great Trachy I bought from a French reliable coin dealer friend Bnumis

Alexis I Sear 1918 aspron Trachy

 

I think all of us have a few of these raggedy-flan big M folles:

 

Exactly as Bing said. I am put off by the residual empire's economy, labyrthine politics, lost glory and achievement, artistry (cartoonish and garish). In my view, a sad decline of Human Achievement.

 

From Bnumis too a half tetarteron from Cyprus Sear 1934 , Sear and Philip Grearson considered it as extremely rare. I will say that from resent studies it level of rarity is R4 at least some will say R5.

 

Now some more common bought to Elsen & sons

 

It is a pretty small collection that should growth over time to include rare coins and gold ones.

 

I'd agree Byzantine coins are an acquired taste - an perhaps too an acquired taste to appreciate the Byzantine political/cultural achievement. But I've found it rewarding to poke around the coins and the history in an amateur way.

At the very least, you can get your fill of gruesome: I was surprised to find a couple years back that Wikipedia has an article entitled: "Political mutilation in Byzantine culture." Since it is wrong for Christians to kill, even your political rival, it became a custom to blind, cut off noses, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_mutilation_in_Byzantine_culture

Wilkipedia provides a nice chart - somebody ought to put together a "Mutilation Collection" of Byzantine coins.

Speaking of mutilation, here is my latest Byzantine. This is one of those giant forward-facing bust folles of Justinian I. They are not exactly hard to find, but they are very popular and therefore very expensive. Thanks to some non-political mutilation (the hole, I mean) I got it on the cheap.



Justinian I Æ Follis
Year 20 (546-547 A.D.)
Nicomedia Mint
DN IVSTINIANVS PP AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing, holding cross/globe and shield, cross right / Large M, ANNO left, cross above, XX right, B below, NIKO in exergue.
SB 201; DOC 117b.
(18.00 grams / 32 mm)

 

I think that in the XIX centuries history studies fall on Roman Empire like Gibbons culture considered this time as a Dark Age , it was in fact the continuation of the Roman Empire oriental part. I understand that many collector that focus on classical aesthetics Greek and Roman need to know more on this important part of Art history,

 

I don't think you need to be so apologetic. Nobody is going to deny that almost the entire run of Byzantine coinage is in the toilet, artistically speaking. However, the part that you might not have considered is that the degraded art is in itself appealing to collectors. Have you seen early British coinage? Merovingian? Hell, pretty much all European coinage didn't have competent engravers until the Renaissance and despite this there's no shortage of collectors.

Possibly the ugliest coins ever made are those of Constantine XI and I'd just about trade a kidney for one :-D

Rasiel

 

I've tried to appreciate Byzantine coins, but they just don't appeal to me. I suppose I should be grateful there are those out there that prefer Byzantine coins to earlier coins. Less competition = lower prices (maybe).

 

I like Byzantine coins and the schismatic history that goes along with them. You read about the fiendish Justinian in Procopius, the panegyric of Anna Comnena in the "Alexiad" about Alexius Comnenus, and the great contortions of the state and society whether you are talking about the blues and green factions in the hippodrome or the battles between the iconoclasts and the iconodules over the nature of religious artistic expression. We go from cartoonish coins (probably Constans II folles are the worst) to sublime portraits of Christ with the gospels in the anonymous coins. We witness a society's transformation over the course of more than 1,000 years of continuous existence. Heck, our society in the U.S. since the time of the Constitution has changed dramatically, who knows if we will still be minting coins and issuing bills in 740 years, or even if we will last that long as a nation. That said, I primarily focus on Roman Imperials.

 

As a whole they don't really appeal to me, although I have dabbled a bit. I can appreciate a nice Byzantine after looking at the wretched European medievals (cross with a legend around it? Yawn!) But I do prefer earlier Roman and Greek coins. That said...

 

While a decent number of coin designs from the post-476 Eastern Romans can appear very crude (during the last 200 years under the Palaiologos dynasty when there sadly wasn't much of an empire anymore for example, those coins are rough to look at), I find there's a lot of coins up till then with an alluring, almost hypnotic quality to them that I find irresistible. I'm just captivated by the geometric and otherworldly abstraction of Medieval art in general, like it's a portal to another realm. It may not be realistic or naturalistic in the manner of Classical Rome or anything but the stylized depictions can still be very elegant and beautiful in my opinion. Here's some Byzantine coins I own and I would really like to collect even more in the future: