I recently acquired a byzantinian (?) coin, which shows (recerse) an M and some crosses, and obverse. the figure of an emperor and says "const avg" . date, somehow 300 or something else. it is not very clear. May somebody assist me?
The design is certainly Byzantine. CONST AVG is short for Constantine Augustus, or Emperor Constantine. The Byzantine empire had probably six or seven Emperor Constantines, so that by itself won't help you date the piece. My best guess is that it's 6th or 7th century AD if authentic, more likely the former. Anything earlier would be considered Roman, but the reverse design is wrong for a Roman coin. (The obverse design strongly resembles 5th century Roman coinage, which is why I believe this piece appears as early Byzantine.) I don't know Byzantine coinage well at all and don't have any references on Byzantine coinage handy. I also don't have any clue whether this piece is authentic.
Weird coin overall. I would be very careful of it. I do collect Byzantine and that coin simply strikes me as wrong in a number of ways. First, the portrait is of early Byzantine, yet the eyes are wrong. The style is not right no the portrait either. On the reverse the denomination is clearly a follis, yet the cursive M does not look right. Also, the marks under the M and to the sides do not look right either. If it references Constantine, there were no Constantine emperors in the timeframe such a coin looking like this would have been struck, (500-600 ad). Overall, if I saw this coin, I would pass. If it is genuine it must be a very scarce coin for me to never have seen anything like it. I would judge it to be a modern fantasy piece. Chris
