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Solidus - Constantine IV, Tiberius and Heraclius Carthage
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 675-676 |
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| Value | 1 Solidus |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of Constantine IV, helmeted and cuirassed, depicted in frontal view with long pendant locks flanking the face. The emperor wears an elaborate crown with pendilia and is shown in imperial regalia with ornate chestplate detail rendered in the flat, stylized manner characteristic of Carthaginian mint production. A spear or scepter is held at the right shoulder. The field is plain, with a beaded border along the coin's circumference. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Constantine IV's co-emperors, his brothers Tiberius and Heraclius, appear on this issue not by dynastic necessity but as a political maneuver — Constantine elevated them jointly in the 650s partly to satisfy factional pressures within Constantinople. He would later have both brothers' noses cut off to disqualify them from imperial succession, a calculated use of rhinotomy that was becoming a standard Byzantine tool of political neutralization.
The Carthage mint, operating under increasingly precarious conditions as the Arab advance pushed westward across North Africa, would be lost permanently within two decades of this striking.