By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. No lonelier man ever occupied the Byzantine throne – or any other, for that matter. Basil was ugly, dirty, coarse, boorish, totally philistine and almost pathologically mean. He was, in short, profoundly un-Byzantine. And all these things, one suspects, he would have readily admitted. He was not concerned with […]
The post Bulgar Slayer: The Coinage of Basil II appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. Imperial Byzantine coinage served both economic and propaganda purposes. The coins routinely identified the reigning emperor or empress by name and title, and usually portrayed the ruler in some vigorous pose that demonstrated power and authority. One great exception was the copper coinage that began to appear circa […]
The post CoinWeek Ancient Coins – The Anonymous Folles of Byzantium appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek …. Link to Part 1 5.) Irene of Athens Like much of the Middle Ages, the history of the Byzantine Empire is fascinating and complex. Unfortunately, it’s not a familiar topic to many Americans. Numismatically, it’s an exceedingly rich field of study, and the next woman […]
The post Top 10 Women on World Coins, Part 2 appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, gold and silver were the coinage of the elite, but humble copper was the coinage of the common folk. For over 120 years, the single denomination of copper coinage issued by the Eastern Roman (“Byzantine”) Empire was “Anonymous”. The Anonymous follis did not bear […]
The post The Byzantine Anonymous Follis – CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series appeared first on CoinWeek.