Leu Numismatik AG
Auction 3 27 Oct 2018
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Byzantine Weights, circa 350-400. Weight of 1 Nomisma (Bronze, 18 mm, 4.34 g, 12 h), an irregularly shaped coin weight for a solidus made from a follis of Maximinus II (310-313). IMP C GAL VAL M[AXIMINVS P F AVG] Laureate head of Maximinus II to right. Rev. [SOLE INVI]CTO / ANT Sol standing front, head to left, in quadriga galloping left, raising his right hand and holding globus in his left; below the horses, Δ. RIC 142. A highly interesting piece with attractive earthen highlights. Very fine.
From an interesting European collection of Byzantine coin & commercial weights.
Cutting worn old coins down to coin weights was a rather common practice in the 4th-7th centuries (see Pera 633-659), but these pieces were usually defaced and heavily altered to withdraw them from circulation, leaving the undertypes often unidentifiable. This unusually attractive example, however, is a very interesting exception to the rule: it was made from a little worn follis of Maximinus II, one of the last imperial persecutors of Christians, and bears a decidedly pagan reverse, both of which indicates that it was cut down to a solidus weight somewhen in the second half of the 4th century at the latest, before Christianity became the predominant religion throughout the empire.
From an interesting European collection of Byzantine coin & commercial weights.
Cutting worn old coins down to coin weights was a rather common practice in the 4th-7th centuries (see Pera 633-659), but these pieces were usually defaced and heavily altered to withdraw them from circulation, leaving the undertypes often unidentifiable. This unusually attractive example, however, is a very interesting exception to the rule: it was made from a little worn follis of Maximinus II, one of the last imperial persecutors of Christians, and bears a decidedly pagan reverse, both of which indicates that it was cut down to a solidus weight somewhen in the second half of the 4th century at the latest, before Christianity became the predominant religion throughout the empire.