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20 Nummi - Syracuse
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 651-652 |
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| Currency | First Solidus Nomisma (498-720) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of the emperor, crowned and long-bearded, draped in imperial chlamys; the right hand holds a globus cruciger. A palm frond rises to the right of the bust, serving as a decorative field element. The portrait is rendered in the hieratic frontal style characteristic of mid-seventh-century Byzantine coinage. The flan is notably irregular, as is typical of hammered bronze issues struck at the Syracuse mint during this period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Syracuse served as the Byzantine administrative capital of Sicily and, increasingly through the seventh century, a refuge mint as Arab expansion severed Constantinople's reach across the western Mediterranean. This issue falls within the reign of Constans II, who famously relocated his court to Syracuse around 663 — the only Byzantine emperor to govern from the west — though this coin predates his arrival by roughly a decade, struck during a period of acute fiscal pressure following the Arab conquest of Alexandria in 642, which destroyed a major source of imperial revenue.
The Syracuse mint was notoriously inconsistent in flan preparation and die alignment during this period, and weight variation across surviving specimens is substantial.