Objects Preserved in Gold

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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Byzantine

John V and John VI Gold Hyperpyron

AD 1347–1353

The Virgin protects the city while Christ stands with John V and John VI, preserving an ideal of concord during a civil war over the imperial throne.

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