Ancient Byzantine - AV Solidus -Constans II Pogonatus - Circa (641-668 AD)

Denomination:  AV Solidus                                                                 

Date:  Circa (654-668 AD)

Mint:  Constantinople                                                                          

Weight: NL

Mount: 18K  gold -  .14 KW Diamonds

Grade: ANACS – AD 654-659 BYZAN  AU53

Description: Constans II Pogonatus and Constantine IV. Obverse: Latin: (d N CONSTANTINЧS CONSTANI), Facing busts of Constans II (on left), wearing mustache and long beard, and Constantine IV (on right), smaller and beardless, both wearing crown and chlamys, cross in field above. Reverse: Latin: (VICTORIA-AVϚЧ I), cross potent with base on three steps.

History: Constans II Pogonatus was born on November 7^th, 630 in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and died on died on September 15, 668 in Syracuse (now Sicily). He was Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor whose reign saw the loss of Byzantium’s southern and eastern provinces to the Arabs. Constans’s internal policy was marked by an attempt to force unity on the church. After theological disputes had divided the empire; in 648 he issued an edict, the Typos, forbidding argument about the controversial question of the divine and human natures of Christ. Pope Martin I condemned the Typos, and Constans, holding to the old conception of a single Roman Empire comprising East and West, had the pope arrested and exiled in 653. .

Since Emperor Constantine I, introduced it in 309, the Byzantine Empire's main coinage had been the high-quality solidus or nomisma, which had remained standard in weight (4.55 grams) and gold content (24 carats) through the centuries.   

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