Catalog
1 Follaro - Robert Guiscard Mary
| Issuer | Apulia and Calabria (Italian States) |
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| Year | 1076-1085 |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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| Obverse description | Facing nimbate bust of Christ in Byzantine style, depicted frontally with a cruciform nimbus encircling the head. The figure holds a closed Gospel book in the left hand, with the right hand partially visible at the sides. Flanking the bust on either side are stylized plant or foliate motifs in the field. The overall treatment reflects the Italo-Byzantine artistic tradition prevalent in Norman-ruled southern Italy. |
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| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Robert Guiscard — Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily — issued this follaro during the same decade he drove the Byzantines from their last Italian stronghold at Bari and briefly held Pope Gregory VII under armed protection in Rome. The Norman coinage of southern Italy at this period blends Latin and Byzantine monetary traditions almost awkwardly, reflecting a conquest culture still deciding what kind of state it was building.
MEC XIV 68 places this type firmly within the ducal series rather than the later comital issues, a distinction that matters for dating within the 1076–1085 window.