As you probably know Byzantine coinage is a mix of Latin and Greek elements. The big coins minted in 500s always have officina mint in alphabet beneath the denomination. I’m just wondering whether the “A” with a horizontal line that looks like a “v”, is a Greek alphabet?: I am asking because it does not look like the “A” we use in the West. Is this "A" a specific Greek alphabet? Or can it be a Latin alphabet? In case someone knows the answer, I would be pleased to know. Thank you so much.
I am not an expert in Byzantine coinage, but a few observations. The Greek capital for Alpha is the same in both the Greek and Latin alphabet (A) but what looks to us as a V could be a vowel or consonant (our U or V) and if the officina letter is in Greek what looks like an A may be the Greek letter lambda with a Greek letter upsilon within it. The officina marking is sometimes cryptic to the average man-in-the-street but to mint officials, they could determine a great deal from it with respect to who and where the coin was minted. I suspect that is what it is, a local identifying combination for coins from that mint workshop in Constatinople.
It's a fancy A for workshop Αλφα (i.e. "1"), technically Greek but as noted above, Greek A and Latin A are effectively interchangeable.
