Byzantine Ancient Coins

Coin

Anastasius I Gold Solidus

AD 491–518

Anastasius inherited the late Roman solidus and made it the stable gold voice of a newly confident eastern empire. Victory and the long cross unite classical…

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Coin

Justin I Gold Solidus with Victory

AD 518–527

Justin I’s solidus preserves the last strength of the late Roman portrait tradition: an armoured emperor answered by Victory and the patriarchal cross.

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Coin

Justin I Gold Solidus with Angel

AD 518–527

A facing military portrait and an angel with the long cross place Justin I between Roman command and the emerging sacred court of Byzantium.

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Coin

Justinian I Gold Solidus

AD 527–565

Justinian’s frontal portrait confronts the viewer; the angel behind it announces that imperial restoration was imagined under divine protection.

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Coin

Justin II Gold Solidus

AD 565–578

Justin II faces the viewer as emperor while Constantinopolis personifies the capital whose authority his gold travelled far beyond the city walls.

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Coin

Tiberius II Constantine Gold Solidus

AD 578–582

Tiberius II’s solidus sets a frontal emperor against the cross potent, reducing imperial ideology to two enduring signs: ruler and faith.

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Coin

Maurice Tiberius Gold Solidus

AD 582–602

Maurice Tiberius appears as a military ruler while an angel carries the patriarchal cross, an image of victory poised before the empire’s seventh-century crisis.

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Coin

Phocas Gold Solidus

AD 602–610

Phocas’s unmistakable bearded portrait faces an angel of victory, preserving official confidence during one of Byzantium’s most violent changes of regime.

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Coin

Heraclius Gold Solidus

AD 610–641

Heraclius’s facing bust belongs to a reign that recovered the True Cross and then watched the old eastern order transform beyond recognition.

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Coin

Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine Gold Solidus

AD 613–641

Heraclius and his son appear together before a cross on steps, turning succession into a public promise during decades of war and religious change.

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Coin

Heraclius and His Sons Gold Solidus

AD 632–641

Three emperors stand as a carefully ordered dynasty while the reverse cross strips imperial legitimacy to its most enduring sacred emblem.

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Coin

Heraclius and His Sons Gold Solidus — CONOB+

AD 632–641

Heraclius and his two sons stand as a complete imperial household, while the cross reduces the empire’s hope of continuity to one monumental sign.

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Coin

Constans II Gold Solidus

AD 641–668

The mature bearded portrait of Constans II faces a cross potent, a severe image of sovereignty from an empire fighting for survival on several fronts.

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Coin

Constans II and Constantine IV Gold Solidus

AD 654–668

Constans II and Constantine IV share the field as father and heir, while the reverse preserves both the cross and the younger sons who complicated the…

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Coin

Constantine IV Gold Solidus

AD 668–685

Constantine IV’s military portrait is paired with a cross guarded by his brothers, preserving both victory and the unresolved tensions of imperial family rule.

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Coin

Justinian II First-Reign Gold Solidus

AD 685–695

Justinian II’s first-reign military portrait faces the traditional cross, an imperial image struck just before Byzantine gold underwent a radical sacred transformation.

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Coin

Justinian II First-Reign Christ-Type Gold Solidus

AD 685–695

Christ takes the place of highest authority, while Justinian II appears on the reverse holding the cross: a decisive reordering of Byzantine coin imagery.

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Coin

Justinian II Gold Solidus, Second Reign

AD 705–711

Restored after exile and mutilation, Justinian II places Christ the King opposite his own uncompromising portrait, turning a turbulent return into sacred authority.

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Coin

Justinian II Second-Reign Gold Tremissis

AD 705–711

A small gold tremissis from Justinian II’s restored reign carries the ruler’s returned authority in a denomination made for circulation beyond the ceremonial solidus.

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Coin

Philippicus Gold Solidus

AD 711–713

Philippicus’s brief reign survives in a confident facing portrait and cross potent, official permanence asserted by a ruler who held power for less than two years.

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