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.
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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49documented objects
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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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Byzantine
Constantine VII and Romanus II Gold Solidus
c. AD 946–959
Christ precedes Constantine VII and Romanus II, presenting scholarship, ceremony and succession as government exercised beneath sacred authority.
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Byzantine
Romanus II Gold Solidus
AD 959–963
Christ faces Constantine VII and Romanus II beneath an altered reverse inscription, a politically charged solidus from Romanus II’s short independent reign.
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Byzantine
John I Gold Tetarteron Nomisma
AD 969–976
Christ confronts the viewer while John I is crowned by the Virgin and the hand of God, turning a contested accession into a ceremony of divine approval.
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Byzantine
Basil II and Constantine VIII Gold Tetarteron Nomisma
AD 976–1025
Christ’s commanding portrait and the paired emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII express the sacred and dynastic foundations of Macedonian power.
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Byzantine
Constantine VIII Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1025–1028
Constantine VIII stands alone opposite Christ after decades as junior emperor, his portrait finally presenting the colleague as sole sovereign.
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Byzantine
Romanus III Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1028–1034
Christ stands in majesty while the Virgin crowns Romanus III, staging imperial rule as a sacred coronation rather than a merely political succession.
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Byzantine
Constantine IX Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1042–1055
Christ enthroned faces Constantine IX across a broad histamenon, projecting sacred order during a reign of court culture, diplomacy and mounting pressure.
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Byzantine
Constantine X Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1059–1067
Christ enthroned faces Constantine X on a broad histamenon, preserving sacred calm at the opening of the Doukas dynasty.
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Byzantine
Romanus IV Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1068–1071
Romanus IV shares his gold with Eudocia and the young Doukas heirs, exposing the complicated family settlement behind a reign remembered for Manzikert.
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Byzantine
Michael VII Gold Histamenon Nomisma
AD 1071–1078
Christ stands opposite Michael VII, whose serene histamenon conceals the fiscal strain that gave the emperor his enduring numismatic nickname.
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Byzantine
Alexius I Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1081–1118
Christ blesses from the broad hyperpyron while the hand of God crowns Alexius I, announcing both a restored emperor and a restored gold currency.
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Byzantine
John II Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1118–1143
Christ stands opposite a coronation by the Virgin, presenting John II’s inheritance of the Komnenian restoration as an act of sacred continuity.
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Byzantine
Manuel I Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1143–1180
The youthful Christ Emmanuel faces Manuel I standing in imperial splendour, pairing sacred promise with the cosmopolitan ambition of the Komnenian court.
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Byzantine
Isaac II Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1185–1195
The Virgin occupies one face while Isaac II stands with an archangel on the other, wrapping a fragile Angelos reign in a powerful network of heavenly protection.
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Byzantine
John III Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1221/2–1254
Struck at Magnesia in the empire of Nicaea, this hyperpyron claims Constantinopolitan sacred kingship for a court ruling in exile.
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Byzantine
Michael VIII Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1261–1282
The Virgin within Constantinople’s walls faces Michael VIII, celebrating the restoration of the capital and the birth of the Palaiologan dynasty.
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Byzantine
Andronicus II Gold Hyperpyron
AD 1282–1328
The Virgin shelters Constantinople while Andronicus II kneels before Christ, an image of humility from a reign confronting the empire’s accelerating contraction.
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Byzantine
Andronicus II and Michael IX Gold Hyperpyron
c. AD 1294–1320
The Virgin guards the capital while Christ receives Andronicus II and Michael IX, using sacred ceremony to stabilize a difficult father-and-son partnership.
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