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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hrefn, post: 7826607, member: 115171&quot;]Two hundred years after Leo I, during the perilous time of Constantine IV, there was a clear decline in literacy and orthography at the Constantinople mint.&nbsp; Of course, the Muslims were knocking on the gates at this time.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;I am not even sure what the celator was trying to say on this solidus.[ATTACH=full]1344797[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1344798[/ATTACH]</p><p>Constantine IV solidus, Constantinople mint, 668-681 AD</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So it is demonstrable that the Constantinople mint two centuries after Leo was capable of putting out a crude, misspelled, illiterate product during a time of existential crisis for the Empire. I mean, look at the feet of the imperial brothers Heraclius and Tiberius on this coin.&nbsp; They are just dots. </p><p><br /></p><p>But that raises the question, what crisis in Leo I’s reign would prompt an emergency issue of gold?&nbsp;&nbsp; And if you need an emergency supply of coined gold, why strike tremisses?&nbsp; Constantine IV had to surrender 300,000 solidi to the Arabs when he struck a truce with them.&nbsp; Crudely struck coins would serve, since the money was leaving the Empire anyway.&nbsp; Any sum in tremisses would take three times as long to strike as opposed to solidi, so emergency tremisses make no sense in a circumstance like that. </p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, we know that various barbarians preferentially coined tremisses, sometimes to the near exclusion of solidi.&nbsp; The Visigoths, Merovingians, Saxons seem to have struck more tremisses than solidi, and the Ostrogoths and Lombards certainly did not neglect the denomination either.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>All of which proves nothing one way or the other, but suggests to me the so-called imitative tremisses of Leo I are of barbarian origin.&nbsp; Proponents of an official origin should be prepared to explain why quality control declined for tremisses, but not solidi.&nbsp; Because the solidi continued to be superb.[ATTACH=full]1344837[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1344838[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion.&nbsp; It has been most thought-provoking.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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