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Rome, 8.1.2024
Dear,
I report below the significant elements regarding the
figure coin:
Æ 40.nummi follis1, Costantinople mint, 491-518 A. D., DOC I
23i, SB
19
Summary description:
D. D N ANASTA-SIVS
P P AVG2. Anastasius
I, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
R. M
large in the centre between two stars3;
cross above, Є
below, CON4,
in exergue.
A search on the web for coins of the figure
typology yielded the following results:
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=189362
258, Lot: 500. Estimate $75. Sold for $80.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (35mm, 17.13g,
6h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
507-512. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed
bust right / Large M; cross above, star to left
and right, Є below; CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB
19. Near VF, brown-green patina, surfaces
slightly rough.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=234293
303, Lot: 426. Estimate $100. Sold for $60.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (38mm, 17.67g,
5h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
512-517. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust
right / Large M; cross above, stars flanking;
Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19. VF, green
patina, some roughness. From the Bramhall
Collection.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=244616
313, Lot: 349. Estimate $100. Sold for $95.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (34mm, 16.13g,
5h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
498-518. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust
right / Large M; cross above, stars flanking;
Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19. Near VF, green
patina, light flaking in areas. From the
Iconodule Collection.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=270686
337, Lot: 549. Estimate $100. Sold for $70.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (37.5mm, 19.11g,
6h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
498-518. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust
right / Large M; cross above, stars flanking;
Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19. Near VF,
earthen brown patina, scratches on portrait,
minor reverse die break.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=276087
342, Lot: 811. Estimate $100. Sold for $80.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (36mm, 18.33g,
6h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
498-518. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust
right / Large M; cross above, stars flanking;
Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19. VF, brown
patina. From the collection of the MoneyMuseum,
Zurich. Ex Helios Webauktion (30 March 2010),
lot 506703.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=278221
344, Lot: 526. Estimate $100. Sold for $110.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (33mm, 18.18g,
6h). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Struck
498-518. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust
right / Large M; cross above, stars flanking;
Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19. Near VF, dark
green patina with touches of red, some minor
deposits.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=113275
175, Lot: 273. Estimate $150. Sold for $152.
Anastasius I. 491-518. AE 40 Nummi – Follis
(36mm, 18.26g, 7h). Constantinople mint. Struck
circa 512-517. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed
bust right / Large M; cross above, stars
flanking, E below; CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19.
Good VF, green patina, minor smoothing.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=113596
176, Lot: 247. Estimate $100.Sold for $130.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (35mm, 17.25g).
Constantinople mint. Struck 498-518. Diademed,
draped and cuirassed bust right / Large M; cross
above, stars flanking; E/CON. DOC 23i; SB 19.
VF, dark greenish-brown patina, some minor
roughness.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=180262
249, Lot: 364. Estimate $100. Sold for $95.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (36mm, 16.82g,
6h). Large module. Constantinople mint, 5th
officina. Struck 498-518. Diademed, draped, and
cuirassed bust right / Large M; cross above,
stars flanking; Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19.
VF, dark green, almost black, patina. From the
HLT Collection.
- https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=180263
249, Lot: 365. Estimate $100. Sold for $95.
Anastasius I. 491-518. Æ Follis (38mm, 18.98g,
6h). Large module. Constantinople mint, 5th
officina. Struck 498-518. Diademed, draped, and
cuirassed bust right / Large M; cross above,
stars flanking; Є//CON. DOC 23i; MIBE 27; SB 19.
VF, even green patina. From the HLT Collection.
Let us come to the conclusions. Within the limits of
a remote assessment, the coin, appears to have
acceptable physical, general and stylistic
characteristics. If authentic, its market value, in
my opinion, should not exceed 60€.
Best regards.
Giulio De Florio
-------------------------------------------------
Notes:
(1) Æ
40.nummi follis. I collect in the table below
the physical characteristics of the coins of the
figure type taken from the links
above:
| References: |
Weight
(g) |
Diameter
(mm) |
Die
axis (h) |
| Link01 |
16,04 |
7 |
37,4 |
| Link02 |
17,67 |
5 |
38 |
| Link03 |
16,13 |
5 |
34 |
| Link04 |
19,11 |
6 |
37,5 |
| Link05 |
18,33 |
6 |
36 |
| Link06 |
18,18 |
6 |
33 |
| Link07 |
18,26 |
7 |
36 |
| Link08 |
17,25 |
- |
35 |
| Link09 |
16,82 |
6 |
36 |
| Link10 |
18,98 |
6 |
38 |
it can be deduced from the table that the physical
characteristics of the coin under consideration
(16,27g, 34mm) fall within the margins of
variability of period coins of the same type found
on the web.
(2) D N ANASTA-SIVS P P AVG
(Dominus Noster ANASTASIVS Per Petuus AVGustus). I
take from the DEI (
Diz. Encicl.Italiano) the following
biographical profile of Emperor Anastasius I: "He
was born in Durrës in 430 (or 431 A.D.), died
perhaps in Constantinople in 518. A modest court
official (Durrës 431 - possibly Constantinople
518), when Zeno Isauricus died (491), he married
his widow Ariadne. He was crowned despite the
hostility of the patriarch Euphemius, who
suspected him of being a Monophysite (but
Anastasius undertook to respect the decisions of
the Council of Chalcedon), and of the Isaurians,
who forced him to fight in their region of Asia
Minor for five years (492 - 497). He then faced
the incursions of the Slavs (from 493), the
Bulgarians (from 499), to protect himself from
which he had the famous 'long wall' of
Constantinople built (507), and those of the
Persians, who, having advanced into Mesopotamia
(502), he forced into peace (505). He sanctioned
instead the rule in Italy of Theodoric (493) and
then that of Clovis, who recognised his high
sovereignty. He reformed the financial
administration by abolishing (498 or 501) the
chrysargyron (tax on merchants, usurers, artisans
and all those paid for their work, including
prostitutes. However, doctors, teachers and
peasants selling their own produce were exempt
from it) and, while implementing reliefs, he
amassed a substantial treasury. In his last years,
favouring the Monophysites, he provoked popular
uprisings and the rebellion of General Vitalian,
who was defeated in 514 and rose again in 518.
(3) M (=40). At the time of
Emperor Anastasius I, in 491, there survived, of
the earlier late Roman coinage: the gold solid
(see link)
and two of its fractions, the semisis (see link)
and the tremissis (see link), as well
as a small copper coin called nummus (see
link), which, by the mid-fifth century was
worth 1/7200 of a solid and weighed less than 1 g.
Anastasius' monetary reform consisted in replacing
the small nummus, which had been almost the only
copper coins of his predecessors, with larger
pieces, with a face value of 5, 10, 20 and 40
times that of the nummus, as shown by the letters
Є, I, K, M on the reverse. Less important were the
innovations in silver; gold remained that of Zeno.
In summary then, the reform of Anastasius (498),
for bronze coinage, provided for a nominal of 40
nummi (see
link), recognisable by the letter M on the
reverse (the Greek letter M stands for 40), a
nominal of 20 nummi, recognisable by the letter K
(see
link), called semifollis, a nominal of 10
nummi, characterised by the letter I (see link)
and a 5-nummi nominal (see
link), characterised by the letter Є. The
follis was a constant in Byzantine coinage for the
next six centuries. [News from an article by
Philip Grierson, entitled BYZANTINE COINAGE].
(4) Є/CON, with Є/CON below
M and CON in
exergue. The sign CON
is the indicative of Constantinople mint, the Є (=5)
indicates the coin workshop that struck the coin. |
