Solidus - Honorius CONCORDIA AVGG, Constantinopolis

Struck at Constantinople during the years when the Eastern and Western empires were technically governed jointly by Honorius and his brother Arcadius, this solidus belongs to the brief window before that arrangement became permanently strained. The CONCORDIA AVGG reverse — invoking the harmony of the two Augusti — was as much a political statement as a monetary one, issued at a court where the real power resided with the generalissimo Eutropius, a eunuch who had himself awarded a consulship in 399, scandalizing the aristocracy on both sides of the Adriatic.

The Constantinople mint maintained exceptional gold standards throughout this period. These solidi circulated widely into the Balkans and along Danube frontier pay routes.