1/8 Siliqua - Zachary

Obverse description	Crude facing bust of Pope Zachary, beardless, depicted frontally with a schematic crown and chlamys rendered in the debased style characteristic of early medieval papal coinage. A cross appears in the left field, serving as a devotional emblem and compositional anchor. The portrait, though stylized, retains traces of the Byzantine imperial bust tradition from which early papal coin types derive. The overall relief is low and the flan irregular, consistent with hand-struck silver of this period.
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Reverse lettering	Z RM (Translation: Zachary. Rome.)
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Additional information	Zachary was the last Greek-speaking pope, and his tenure marked the definitive break between the papacy and the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna — a rupture accelerated by the Lombard seizure of Ravenna in 751, just one year before his death. These fractional silver pieces were struck as the papacy began functioning as a genuinely independent temporal authority for the first time, issuing coinage in its own right rather than under imperial sanction. At 0.13 g, survival is almost entirely a matter of luck.