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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ancient coin hunter, post: 6410021, member: 87200&quot;]Very good points made in the thread. My opinion based on my read of Late Antiquity (roughly fourth to seventh centuries as defined by the historian Peter Brown) is that symbolism was still very important. Furthermore, the Empire hadn&#039;t really fallen but only Rome had. </p><p><br /></p><p>The far more important city of Constantinople was still the bastion of the Romans who in fact held more than half of Italy into the 7th century and the solidus and its subdivisions had been circulating for over 300 years. </p><p><br /></p><p>Better to acknowledge the emperors&#039; suzerainty and respect the monetary tradition than to strike something that might not be recognized in the economy as the solidus was, which always had featured a stylized portrait of the emperor. Even in the year 800, pope Leo III crowned Charles as Holy Roman Emperor only because it was felt that Irene (being a woman) should not be the head of the Empire and that therefore it was acceptable for Charles to claim the title.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Below, the Empire around 635 A.D., striped areas had been held briefly by the Sassanids)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1253863[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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