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Message:: [QUOTE="Voulgaroktonou, post: 3287489, member: 84047"]Beautiful Justinians, Valentinian. I am currently studying a group of several hundred minimi of Leo, Marcian, and Zeno and on to the end of the 5th c. What a contrast the reformed coins of Anastasius and his successors must have made to their users. Last night, a friend told my wife and me that her earlier study of a hoard of minimi from a well at Caesarea Maritima showed that these minute coins (ca. 10 mm., and well under a gram in weight) tended to be struck on flans that were too small for their dies. Although some of my coins of Marcian and Leo do have recognizable obverse inscriptions, later issues, as of Zeno, Basiliscus and Anastasius, often have no visible obverse inscription. Instead the reverse supplies a monogram of the issuer's name. [ATTACH=full]869134[/ATTACH] My coin above, of Anastasius I, 491-518 (Sear 13 = H. 40. Description: 10.4 mm., 0.70 g.), is an interesting exception. A partial legend is visible, and the use of the Greek lunate sigma for the Latin S indicates that the die was likely cut by a Greek speaker. [ATTACH=full]869146[/ATTACH] This Anastasius reformed follis from Nicomedia (512-517) is a very rare example of the emperor's monogram appearing on the reverse under the mark of value.Sear 37 = H. 44. Description: 33.5 mm., 16.86 g.[/QUOTE]