Dinar - Stefan Uroš IV Dušan with Helen right, Christ seated

Stefan Dušan struck coinage in his own name from the early 1330s, but the joint issues depicting him alongside his wife Helen reflect a deliberate political statement made after his coronation as Emperor of Serbs and Greeks at Skopje in April 1346 — a ceremony for which he elevated the Serbian archbishopric to a patriarchate specifically to provide the ecclesiastical authority the crowning required. The pairing of imperial couple with enthroned Christ drew consciously on Byzantine numismatic convention, positioning Dušan as legitimate successor to Constantinople rather than merely a regional king who had expanded his borders.

Dušan's law code, the Zakonik, was promulgated in 1349, mid-series.