Byzantine
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 triumph with…
View Object RecordThe Ancient Gold Collection
Objects Preserved in Gold
A scholarly catalogue of ancient gold coinage, presented as individual historical records.
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49 objects
Byzantine
Justin I Gold Solidus
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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Byzantine
Justin I Gold Solidus
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
Heraclius Heraclius Constantine and Heraclonas 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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Byzantine
Heraclius Heraclius Constantine and Heraclonas Gold Solidus
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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 succession.
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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
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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Byzantine
Leo III and Constantine V Gold Solidus
AD 720–740/1
Leo III and Constantine V face one another across the two sides of the solidus, replacing sacred figural imagery with a direct statement of dynasty.
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Byzantine
Constantine V Gold Solidus
AD 740/1–775
Constantine V places his deceased father Leo III opposite his own portrait, using gold to turn ancestry into continuing political authority.
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Byzantine
Constantine V and Leo IV Gold Solidus
AD 750–775
Constantine V and Leo IV appear together while Leo III occupies the reverse, arranging three generations of the Isaurian dynasty in gold.
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Byzantine
Leo IV and Constantine VI Gold Solidus
AD 776–780
Leo IV and the young Constantine VI face two deceased ancestors, turning the solidus into a four-generation theatre of legitimacy.
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