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Solidus - Gisulf II in the name of Justinian II
| Issuer | Benevento (Lombard Kingdom) |
|---|---|
| Year | 742-751 |
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| Value | 1 Solidus |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Frontal facing bust of the emperor in Byzantine imperial style, crowned with a diadem adorned with pendilia and wearing an elaborately draped loros. The bearded effigy holds a cross potent in the right hand, with a globus cruciger partially visible at lower left. The facial rendering is characteristically stylized in the Lombard tradition, with large almond-shaped eyes and formal frontal presentation. The surrounding Latin legend reads D N I - INVS PP, invoking the name of Justinian II as imperial authority. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | D N I - INVS PP |
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| Additional information |
Gisulf II ruled Benevento as duke during one of the most politically precarious periods in Lombard Italy, sandwiched between Frankish ambitions to the north and Byzantine enclaves pressing from the south and east. Striking in the name of Justinian II — an emperor dead since 711 — was not ignorance but policy: it avoided acknowledging any living Byzantine emperor as suzerain while maintaining the fiction of imperial continuity that legitimized Lombard coinage at all.
The electrum composition places this well below the gold standard of genuine Byzantine solidi, a debasement typical of Beneventan ducal issues of the period. Only a handful of specimens are recorded.