This just came in the mail yesterday and lived up completely to its photos. I couldn’t resist its strong details and smooth surfaces. This is the only ancient I own that looks like it could straight grade if it was a modern coin. That brings me to a question I have about surfaces. Are there ancient coins that have survived with original surfaces without heavy patina? Or is my coin, along with others that look “new”, something that a modern collector would call “cleaned and retoned”?
All ancients are cleaned in some form or another. It just how well they are cleaned & how their environment was when they were buried for thousands of years. Nice coin though. Justinian I (527 - 565 A.D.) Æ Follis O: DN ISTINI-ANVS PP AVG Helmeted and cuirassed bust of Justinian facing, holding globus cruciger and a shield. R: Large M, cross above, ANNO left, regnal year XXXI right, G ( = officina 3 ) below, THEUP in ex. Theoupolis - Antiochia 18.64g 32mm SB 220 Justinian I (527-565 A.D.) Æ 1/2 Follis O: DN IVSTINI-ANVS PP AVG, Diademed draped and cuirassed bust right. R: Large K, cross to left, star above and below, officinia gamma to right. 22mm 9.9g Constantinople mint SB 164; Doc 33
Congrats on the acquisition. Justinian follis coins are always awesome and highly sought after. Here are two coins, that are a few years apart that shows the difference in the portraits after Justinian caught the plague: RY 13 vs. RY 16 of the same Constantinople Follis (Sear 163)
Congrats, Ksorbo, the follis of Justinian is very nice! Nice patina, Mat and I wish double likes were an option on Quant.Geek's. Very nice.. Quant Geek; do you think the second one shows weight gain or is that a quirk of the engraver in charge of that one? My Ravenna is decrepit but shows a thinner Justinian. I'll go a slightly different route and offer a decrepit (but look at the Sear plate coin, these are usually decrepit) Follis of Ravenna. I'm happy with decrepit in this case. This issue is unobtanium and was a bucket list want for me. I love Ravenna mint coins! A Ravenna solidus with an annular border is a double bucket list want. Title: *Sear 323* Byzantine Empire. Justinian I (AD 527-565) Æ Follis Attribution: Sear Byzantine 323 Ravenna mint Date: Dated Year 34 - AD 560/1 Obverse: Helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger, cross to right Reverse: Large M, A/N/N/O to left, cross above, X / XX / IIII (date) in left field, RAVEN / NA below Size: 34.13mm Weight: 8.81 grams Description: good Fine. Very Rare. From the Peter Lee Collection. My grade: G/VG.
Justinian caught the Plauge around RY 15/16. Once you catch it, there is a tendency for your lymph nodes to swell: Based on Henri Pottier (https://www.academia.edu/10372470/Lempereur_Justinien_survivant_à_la_peste_bubonique_542_), the die engravers changed the coins to show a "swollen" Justinian. Later follis of Justinian, goes back to normal. Interestingly, this was only shown in the coins of Constantinople as the other mints continued normally... RY 12 vs. RY 16 of the same Constantinople Half Follis (Sear 165):
I have very few coins from Ravenna, so you are very lucky to get that, and a follis nonetheless! I'll show my humble decanummium: Byzantine Empire: Justinian I (527-565) Æ Decanummium, Ravenna, RY 36 (Sear-326; DOC I-353; MIBE-229a; Ranieri-395) Obv: Helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger and shield Rev: Large I flanked by date; all within wreath
I have a few coins from Ravenna, almost all 10 nummi. I picked up a fairly nice one at a coin show at Detroit 25 years ago. I remember being scared of Detroit more than the coin show itself, lol. It's surprising that Justinian would have allowed unflattering portraits. Interesting. I've noticed the fat face factor before. Al Kowsky's examples are also commensurate of his collection; lovely.
I also hope to find a pre-reform follis of Antioch which has the semi-realistic bust. They're not terribly rare, but I've been waiting for a nice one. My favorites are years 12-14.
Justinian I, Byzantine Empire AE follis Obv: D N IVSTINI-ANVS P P AVG, diademed, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger and shield, cross to right Rev. Large M, cross above, officina letter Δ below, ANNO to left, XX to right, mintmark QHЧΠ in ex Mint: Theopolis (Antioch) Date: 546/7 (year 20) Ref: SB 220 Size: 19.9 gr., 39 mm
I like it! Made doubly interesting after the podcast The History of Byzantium did a deep dive into Khrusru's Syrian campaign.
That's a beautiful coin! Your coin is one of the lucky ones. It is not corroded and the strike is very good. Yes, it has been cleaned, as noted by others, but the overall state of its preservation is such that the cleaning was, in all likelihood, quite basic. No, I do not think this coin has been re-toned. It is re-toning on its own, and if it was not in the slab and stored in a paper envelope, the toning would create a darker brown over time. Here is a less fortunate follis of his, year 33, a newly arrived coin. Towards the middle of Justinian's reign the flans began to shrink, the dies were mostly crudely engraved and the strikes usually pretty poor. This coin, in addition to those factors was probably stored as part of a hoard, buried in some bag or pot that disintegrated over the centuries, allowing water and various chemicals to interact with the surfaces, and causing abrasions, although these might have occurred during its circulation, creating what we see today. And, yes, this coin was cleaned, but not to the point where the original deposits are unduly disturbed. Justinian I, 559 AD AE Follis Constantinople Year 33 Officina Δ Sear 163 16.2 grams If anyone is interested in a fictional work on the reign of Justinian I, from the perspective of his main general, Flavius Belisarius, Robert Graves' novel, Count Belisarius is a good read. Nice coins posted!
Plague years strike. Good thing to remember, there were no newspapers and coins were one way to communicate with the masses. The public were very aware of symptoms of the plague. The coinage of the plague years shows that even the Emperor shared their woe's.
