Nicephorus I AV Solidus. Syracuse, AD 802-803. ΛI-FOROS bAS, bearded bust facing, wearing chlamys and crown with cross; in right hand, cross potent and in left, akakia / IҺSЧS XPIS-TЧS ΛICA X, Cross potent on base of three steps; C-I across fields. BCI III, 820a (same dies); DOC -; Spahr -; Anastasi -; Sear -; Roma V, 945 (same dies). 3.81g, 19mm, 6h.

Fleur De Coin. Extremely Rare; until the example sold by Roma Numismatics (Auction V, 23 March 2013, lot 945) no gold had been recorded from the mint at Syracuse for the sole reign of Nicephorus.

From a private Central European collection.

Minister of Finance under Irene, Nicephorus was crowned immediately after the empress was deposed, which had been the result of a plot instigated by Nicephorus himself with the help of the patricians and eunuchs of the court. In contrast to the marked individuality seen on Irene's coinage, showing the empress on both obverse and reverse, Nicephorus chose instead to revert to the ancient cross-on-steps type of his predecessors, with the same reverse legend that occurred on the miliaresion for his solidi from the mint at Constantinople.