Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Justinian I AV Solidus. Carthage, dated indiction year 10 = AD 546/7. D N IVSTINIANVS P P AVG, helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger and shield decorated with horseman motif; four pendilia hanging from helmet, each with two jewels / VICTORIA AVGGG I, angel standing facing, holding long jewelled cross and globus cruciger; eight pointed star in lower right field; CONOB in exergue. Unpublished in the standard references, for a similar type, cf. Morrisson 1988, Group A, 35-40, citing examples MIBE 25; DOC 277e and BNC 02-03 (all with single jewelled pendilia, plain long cross and six pointed star in reverse right field). 4.44g, 22mm, 7h.
Good Extremely Fine; executed with exceptionally meticulous engraving style. Unique and unpublished.
From a private English collection.
At the outset of the re-conquest of the West in AD 533 the Magister Militum Belisarius sailed to Africa with a fleet of 92 warships and caught the Vandals and their king Gelimer completely by surprise, re-establishing the prefecture of Africa with its capitol at Carthage. A new mint was soon set up to supply the monetary needs of the bureaucracy and army, now actively engaged in a war against the Gothic kingdom of Italy.
The activity of this new mint at Carthage has been the object of a detailed corpus of the then known specimens (90) by C. Morrisson, 'Carthage: The Moneta Auri, 537-578', in Studies in Early Byzantine Gold Coinage, ANS NS 17, 1988, pp. 44-64. As can be expected from a new mint, the engraving style and technical features of this new coinage differed from those of the main mint at Constantinople, not the least of which was the use of indiction dates, a 15-year cycle used to date ancient and medieval documents and coins to facilitate something the Byzantines excelled in, the enforcement of agricultural or land taxes.
The above special issue my be connected to the settling of overdue payments to general John Troglita from 546 onwards, when he assumed overall command of Byzantine forces in Africa.
Good Extremely Fine; executed with exceptionally meticulous engraving style. Unique and unpublished.
From a private English collection.
At the outset of the re-conquest of the West in AD 533 the Magister Militum Belisarius sailed to Africa with a fleet of 92 warships and caught the Vandals and their king Gelimer completely by surprise, re-establishing the prefecture of Africa with its capitol at Carthage. A new mint was soon set up to supply the monetary needs of the bureaucracy and army, now actively engaged in a war against the Gothic kingdom of Italy.
The activity of this new mint at Carthage has been the object of a detailed corpus of the then known specimens (90) by C. Morrisson, 'Carthage: The Moneta Auri, 537-578', in Studies in Early Byzantine Gold Coinage, ANS NS 17, 1988, pp. 44-64. As can be expected from a new mint, the engraving style and technical features of this new coinage differed from those of the main mint at Constantinople, not the least of which was the use of indiction dates, a 15-year cycle used to date ancient and medieval documents and coins to facilitate something the Byzantines excelled in, the enforcement of agricultural or land taxes.
The above special issue my be connected to the settling of overdue payments to general John Troglita from 546 onwards, when he assumed overall command of Byzantine forces in Africa.