Follis of Anastasius

Creator

Preview

Creation Date

498–518

Geography

Minted in Constantinople

Culture

Byzantine

Medium

Bronze

Dimensions

33.34 mm

17.44 g (0.62 oz)

Credit Line

Long-term Loan from Brad Hostetler, 2025

Accession Number

2025.1

Condition

Due to use over time, some areas of this coin have been worn down and are no longer legible. The coin is also asymmetrical, being clipped on the right edge when viewed from the obverse side. (December 2024)

References

Alfred R. Bellinger, Catalog of Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, vol.1, Anastasius I - Maurice, 491–602 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1966), pp. 18–23 (DOC 23).

Description

This copper alloy coin, minted in Constantinople, is from the reign of Anastasius I, who ruled from 491 to 518 CE during the Late Antique and Early Byzantine period. Before Anastasius’s rule, copper coins were almost always issued as nummi, the lowest denomination available in circulation. In 494, he issued more copper coins in new denominations, making him known for reforming Byzantine coinage. This coin is one of these denominations, known as a follis, and it is worth forty nummi.

On the obverse is an inscription and a bust of Anastasius. A textured line separates the flan from the struck area of the coin. Beginning from the left, the Latin letters read “Our Lord Anastasius is Augustus in eternity.” The first few letters have been blundered, but the inscription can be confirmed by other coins of the same type. Anastasius’s bust takes up the middle third of the coin. His chest is depicted in three-quarter view and his head faces right in profile. He wears a special crown called a diadem, an armored breastplate called a cuirass, a cloak called a paludamentum, and a fibula that fastens the cloak to his right shoulder.

At the very center of the reverse is a large, Greek letter mu, “M,” a marking identifying the coin as a follis. Another textured line separates the flan from the struck area of the coin. Directly above the center of the “M” is a cross. On either side of the “M” are identical, 6-pointed stars, directly in line with one another. Underneath each foot of the “M” are two thin, horizontal lines that extend the width of each foot. In the exurge, the lower section of the coin below the “M,” an inscription reads “CON,” identifying Constantinople as the city in which the coin was minted.

The most interesting parts of this coin lie on the reverse. Typically, Byzantine coins included markings that identified the regnal year and an officina. The regnal year identifies the year of the emperor’s reign when the coin was minted. The officina is a marking that uses specific Greek letters to identify the exact workshop where the coin was produced. All coins of the same type as this coin lack a regnal year, meaning the mint year cannot be identified for any of them, but still feature an officina. This coin, however, lacks both a regnal year and an officina, making it impossible to determine exactly when and in exactly which workshop it was made.

Elle Plasencia (Florida State University, ’27) for ARH 2020 Reading and Writing Art History (fall 2024), taught by Dr. Lynn Jones.