Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1823; DOC B)

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Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1823; DOC B.1-64; Zervos Type B-2) - Attributed to Romanus III (1028-1034)

Obv: IC-XC to right and left of bust of Christ facing with nimbate cross behind head, dot in each limb of nimbus cross, holding book of gospels, a dot in center of dotted square on book
Rev: IS-XS ЬAS-ILЄ ЬAS-ILЄ to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps
Dim: 27 mm, 8.65 g

An extremely rare variation of the Anonymous Class B Follis. The arms of the nimbus cross has only dots and the book of Gospels has five dots. Using Orestes H. Zervos' classifications of the Class B folles, these types were found during the excavation of Corinth. See the following paper:

Zervos, Orestes H., The Substantive Varieties of Anonymous Folles of Class B, Nomismatika Khronika No. 22/2003

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Nobody has shown so many great Byzantine coins as you and I learned a lot from those posts. While it is still difficult to read the legends, I usually have no problems interpreting them. These coins are not beauties, but they are relics of an important empire and they show an interesting art form that survives in Greek catholic and Russian orthodox religious buildings.

Peter