[Reviving an old
thread]
The coin is a
solidus, 14mm and about 3.6g. But which emperor?
The only
solidus I am aware of with both the
obverse and
reverse emperors wearing a chamlys is the very
rare solidus of
Constantine V published by Ohara, but that was a much larger
diameter coin (21-22mm if I remember correctly). And the
style of that coin was also different -- though the big noses and squinty eyes seemed to start under
Constantine V.
The
diameter and
fabric here are consistent with a
solidus of
Michael II, but the iconography and small lettering
style seems incompatible with
Michael II. As
Wroth noted in
BMC, the heads started to become contorted during
Leo V, and are a lot more contorted by
Michael II's time. That was
his reason to assign some AV with Michael's name to
Michael I.
Could this be
Michael I? That seems the most probable to me. Although the entire
legend is missing on one
side, the the
legend on the other
side seems to read
or possibly
Or some variation of that. However, the difficulty is that Theophylact is bearded, but the
senior emperor
Michael I is not. Perhaps a mistake? Regarding the
diameter and
fabric, I am aware of a
Michael I solidus with a
diameter as low as 17mm. The problem is that the coins are so
rare, few specimens are available for comparision purposes. The few that are available also have small letting like this.
Style seems compatible with Nicephorus or earlier, but I cannot reconcile the
legend to any earlier emperor. The
legend does not seem to fit with any variation for Leo,
Constantine, Nicephorus,
Stauracius . . . unless I am misisng something.
The
style is also completely incompatible with
Theophilus. Lettering too. And there is a very apparent
at the end of the
legend, which
weights in favor of Theophylact rather than
Theophilus. But then again, a bearded emperor.
Comments welcome!