Objects Preserved in Gold

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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Byzantine

Constantine VI Gold Solidus

AD 780–787

Constantine VI appears beside his father on one face and his grandfather and great-grandfather on the other, inheriting a dynasty whose internal tensions would shape his fate.

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Byzantine

Constantine VI and Irene Gold Solidus

AD 787–797

Irene occupies one face and Constantine VI the other, a stark two-person image from one of Byzantium’s most charged struggles between regent, mother and emperor.

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Byzantine

Nicephorus I and Stauracius Gold Solidus

AD 803–811

Nicephorus I and Stauracius divide the solidus between reigning father and designated son, restoring a direct dynastic portrait after Irene’s sole rule.

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Byzantine

Theophilus Gold Solidus

AD 829–842

Theophilus places his father and a deceased elder brother opposite his own portrait, making family memory the foundation of present rule.

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Byzantine

Theophilus Syracuse Gold Semissis

AD 829–842

This small Syracuse semissis repeats Theophilus on both sides, translating Constantinopolitan authority into the distinct visual language of a western mint.

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Byzantine

Romanus I and Christopher Gold Solidus

AD 923–931

Christ enthroned faces Romanus I and Christopher, placing an ambitious shared dynasty beneath a visibly higher sacred kingship.

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