Æ Nummus - Leo I Constantinople

Leo I came to power in 457 as the first Eastern emperor crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople rather than by a military commander — a deliberate shift in legitimating authority that would shape Byzantine succession for centuries. These small nummi represent the lowest denomination in active circulation during his reign, a period when the Eastern court was simultaneously managing the catastrophic fallout of the 468 Vandal campaign, in which a joint Eastern and Western fleet was destroyed off Cape Bon at enormous financial cost to the imperial treasury.