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Nummus - Justinian I Carthage, ☧
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 527-565 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust of Emperor Justinian I facing right, rendered in the schematic late antique style characteristic of small Byzantine copper coinage. The diadem is visible atop the imperial effigy, and the paludamentum is suggested at the shoulder. The flan is irregular and the strike somewhat flat, consistent with the artisanal production of this denomination at the Carthage mint. No legend is present on this type. |
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| Reverse lettering | ☧ |
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| Additional information |
Carthage's Byzantine mint operated under conditions quite unlike Constantinople — a reconquered province, taken from the Vandals in 533 under Belisarius, where imperial coinage had to reassert Roman authority over a population that had spent a century outside the empire. These tiny copper nummi, the lowest denomination in the Byzantine monetary hierarchy, were the coins most ordinary North Africans would have handled daily. The Carthage mint's output for Justinian's reign is catalogued across multiple die studies, and the chi-rho marked pieces represent a distinct local variant not replicated at other mints.