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1 Solidus In the name of Anastasius I, Lyon, without monogram
| Issuer | Burgundian Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 473-516 |
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| Diameter | 21 mm |
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| Obverse description | Frontal bust of Emperor Anastasius I, helmeted and cuirassed, with elaborate imperial regalia including a jewelled breastplate. The emperor holds a spear over his right shoulder and a shield decorated with a horseman motif is visible to the left. The bust is rendered in the stylised late antique manner characteristic of Burgundian imitative coinage, with a frontal facing portrait rather than the profile convention of earlier Roman issues. A circular legend in Latin surrounds the bust within the beaded border of the coin. |
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| Reverse description | Standing figure of Victory facing left, winged and draped, holding a long jewelled cross-staff in her right hand and a globus cruciger in her left. The figure is rendered in the late antique style typical of Burgundian solidus imitations, with elongated proportions and stylised drapery folds. A six-pointed star appears in the upper right field. A ground line runs beneath the figure, with the mint and purity mark CONOB inscribed in the exergue. The surrounding circular legend is divided on either side of the Victory figure. |
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| Additional information |
The Burgundian kingdom occupied a complicated political position in the late fifth century — nominally federate under Roman and then Ostrogothic overlordship, yet increasingly autonomous in practice. Striking solidi in the name of Anastasius I, the reigning Eastern emperor, was a deliberate act of legitimacy-borrowing. It cost the Burgundians nothing diplomatically while projecting Roman authority onto their own fiscal system.
The Lyon mint's output from this period is distinguished from comparable Visigothic and Frankish imitations partly by the absence of a royal monogram — a feature that appears on later Burgundian issues once the dynasty grew confident enough to mark the coinage as its own.