I always envisaged a Byzantine Christ follis being part of my Roman/Byzantine portrait collection. So I won this in an eBay auction from Savoca for only $30, which seemed to be a reasonable price considering the quality: Can you help me out with an attribution please? I don't know these coins well.
Nice one! I think yours is a different class then mine. Romanus III (1028-1034 A.D.) Æ Follis Class B O: IC-XC, Bust of Christ holding book of gospels. EMMA NOVHL R: IS-XS BAS-ILE BAS-ILE to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps. Constantinople Mint 9.32g 29mm SB 1823, Grierson 984
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Anonymous Follis Above will tell you all you need but below allows getting ridiculous. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Anonymous Byzantine Class A Folles Excellent coin.
$30 is a great price for that coin! These Forvm pages will help with attribution: Ah, nevermind, Doug just posted them
it's a class A https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Anonymous Byzantine Class A Folles edit: as previously posted
Savoca has lots of coins that often sell for good prices, but i haven't bought anything in a while since they only ship Fed-Ex now + I am scared of import fees here is mine.. Anonymous Follis. Struck in the Time of Basil II & Constantine VIII, circa 976-1025. Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator / Legend in four lines; ornaments above and below. DOC A2.48; SB 1813. 17.4g 36mm was pretty much free since i bought it on Ebay in a lot of 4 coins (sold the other 3 and broke even)
Awesome coin! And yes, Savoca have some high quality stuff. Btw - they don't ship FedEx if you ask them not to. They are happy to ship registered international post. I'm not allowing shipment by FedEx again after recent experience.
When separating the three sub classes of A, it is always good to pay attention to weight. A1's are smaller, A2's larger and A3's in the middle. (Details on the page I posted earlier.) Of course we can ask what we mean by attribution. I prefer to just use the 'Anonymous A2' rather than the current theory of who was emperor at that time. It is like the situation we have in US. I have an 1806 cent but don't catalog it as a Jefferson. Did the various classes change when the ruler changed or for some other reason mid reign? Sometimes we try too hard to have a solid ID to the point that sounding certain outranks being accurate.
I'm happy to call it Anonymous A2 too - I need to see a name and a portrait of the ruler in order to say it belongs to this or that emperor. From what I've read, the classes help define the range of years the coin could have been minted - and that is enough for me. I'm very happy to welcome this one into my collection.
Yep, an anonymous follis. Nice one."Jesus Christ, King of Kings" on the reverse. Kind of counterbalances coins of the competing Islamic states which usually carried the legend "There is no god but god, and Muhammad is his prophet."
A very nice follis, Greg. A few years back I accidentally started collecting Byzantine bronze. For years I'd thought they were too crude and crusty for consideration, but after getting a few in hand, I really started enjoying them. Once I started digging in on attribution, they were not as baffling as they seem initially. I like Doug's take on attributing these to specific rulers - probably not possible. A lot of members have already posted some good links. A few years back I found a really good article that I cannot now locate online - it is worth a look if you can find it: Anonymous Byzantine Bronzes: Their Iconography, History, and Collectibility Chris Freeman, Twin Cities Ancient Coin Club
I asked them before I bid auction and they said they could ship german post.. Then after the auction I sent them a message and got this response: I complained + said if they can't ship registered mail to just cancel the order + they sent me this message + I got them sent as registered mail
Nice one. Much better than many. As mentioned in the link provided by Doug, such coins are called Anonymous since there are no portrait of the ruler, but only Jesus. Mine here, and 3 others I have not showing before (I think): All have somehow the same size. That first coin here, like the OP’s, is one of my favorite. During this time Byzantium flourished due to the Macedonian Dynasty. It was during this period that Ukraine/Russia adopted Christianity and gained the literacy. It was called Cyrillic alphabets named after the two brothers of Cyril and Methodius who introduced the religion and as well a written system for the Russians. Hence “Cyrillic alphabet”. Also it was during this time that the Vikings came to Constantinople via the Volga river. The Vikings definitely have touched such coins. In Hagia Sophia you can actually read a Runic scripture of a Viking who engraved his name onto it:
