Byzantine Empire13 records
Imperial portraiture, Christian imagery, mint systems and dynastic authority in Byzantine gold.
Latest Heraclius and the Cross on StepsExplore context ⟶The Ancient Gold Journal
Stories Struck in Gold
Essays on coinage, rulers, sacred imagery and the responsibility of collecting objects that have survived history.
Collection Discovery
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Follow themes across the Journal, from imperial imagery and mint practice to provenance and responsible collecting.
Coin Histories8 records
Object-led studies of legends, denominations, iconography and the evidence carried by individual coins.
Latest Athena, Nike and Macedonian Continuity after AlexanderExplore context ⟶Roman Empire5 records
Power, ceremony and visual language across the gold coinage of imperial Rome.
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Practical scholarship on provenance, condition, grading and responsible stewardship.
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Featured Essay
Constantine’s Solidus: An Imperial First
How a stable gold denomination became an enduring language of imperial authority.
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From the Collection
Latest Essays
Coin Histories
The Gold Solidus and Its Weight Standard
The solidus was defined by a historical target of seventy-two to the Roman pound, while every surviving coin has its own measurable history.
7 min readRead
Roman Empire
Vows, VOTA and Imperial Time
VOTA inscriptions translate promised anniversaries into public statements of continuity, legitimacy and hoped-for future rule.
6 min readRead
Byzantine Empire
What CONOB Means on Byzantine Gold
CONOB is a compact late Roman and Byzantine mint formula: Constantinople plus a claim of refined gold, not a decorative signature.
7 min readRead
Byzantine Empire
Irene and Constantine VI: Authority Divided in Gold
A rare Constantinopolitan solidus places Irene before her son, turning a restored partnership into a carefully ordered image of authority.
8 min readRead
Byzantine Empire
Isaac II Angelos: Empire and Archangel on the Hyperpyron
The first-reign hyperpyron of Isaac II makes celestial protection visible at the troubled end of the Komnenian political order.
8 min readRead
Roman Empire
Arcadius in Gold: Concordia and the Imperial Capital
The solidus of Arcadius turns dynastic succession, civic personification and the vows of rule into a compact language of concord.
7 min readRead
Byzantine Empire
The Sacred Imagery of Constantine VII’s Gold Histamenon Nomisma
A gold coin on which theology, ceremony and succession become inseparable.
10 min readRead
Collecting
Ancient Gold Coin Collecting: History, Value, and Rarity
A considered introduction to historical significance, rarity, condition and responsible collecting.
11 min readRead
Roman Empire
Coins of the Frontier Warrior: Valentinian I and the Final Gold Solidus
Imperial partnership, frontier pressure and the political message carried by a solidus of AD 373–375.
10 min readRead