Catalog
Nummus / Fals - Anonymous imitating Constans II Arab-Byzantine
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 680-693 |
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| Currency | Solidus (661-750) |
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| Obverse description | Beardless imperial effigy standing facing in full-length, crowned and draped in chlamys, holding a long processional cross in the right hand and a globus cruciger in the left. The figure is rendered in a flat, provincial style characteristic of early Arab-Byzantine imitative coinage, closely copying the iconography of Constans II folles. No visible legend in the field. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (680-693) - Dimashq mint - ND (680-693) - Hims mint - |
| Additional information |
These transitional bronzes emerged from the early Umayyad administration's pragmatic decision to keep coinage flowing in newly conquered Syrian and Palestinian territories by imitating what the population already trusted — late Byzantine imperial types. The copying was deliberate but loose, with Arab workshop engravers gradually corrupting the Greek legends into meaningless strings of letters across successive die generations. By the time Abd al-Malik's monetary reforms took hold after 696, the entire imitative tradition was swept away in favor of fully epigraphic Islamic coinage.