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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2197142, member: 19463&quot;]eBay has a program of rebates that provided me with a gift certificate expiring August 1 so I went on the hunt for a coin I wanted to use this before that date.&nbsp; It always seems that the month when I have one of these quarterly bonuses will see less I want posted.&nbsp; One quarter I bought a meteorite; another a photo accessory.&nbsp; This time I bought a coin I&#039;m not sure I wanted.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]427655[/ATTACH] </p><p>This is an AE26 follis of Byzantine emperor Michael VII 1071-1078 AD.&nbsp; I failed to research it before bidding so I missed that it was missing the legend identifying the emperor but I considered the facing portraits worth the price minus the coupon.&nbsp;&nbsp; I previously had only one coin of Michael VII and the interest to me of this new one is largely the comparison of the two. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]427656[/ATTACH] </p><p>The cup shaped gold and flat bronze have rather similar reverse portraits of Michael VII but I might say the old has a bit of a nasty attitude on his face while the bronze seems a bit bored.&nbsp; The oddity in my eye is the difference between the obverse portraits of Christ.&nbsp; The gold has the skinniest Christ I&#039;ve seen while the bronze has a face shape rather like the emperor&#039;s on the reverse.&nbsp; I really like the Christ face on the bronze better than the gold.&nbsp; That brought up the research question as whether there is any pattern to be found with the divine features being made to resemble the ruler or if this is just a random matter.&nbsp; Some will insist that late Roman and Byzantine portraits were not realistic.&nbsp; Perhaps, but I see way too many patterns, often unique to one mint, for us to write all this off as sloppy workmanship.&nbsp; </p><p>Post your coins with Christ and a ruler whether or not they look like each other.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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