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40 Nummi - Justinian the Great
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 22 g |
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| Obverse description | Frontal bust of Emperor Justinian I facing, helmeted and diademed with a jewelled crown adorned with pendilia, draped in imperial loros and cuirass. The emperor holds a globus cruciger in his right hand, symbolising Christian imperial authority. The facial rendering is in the characteristic hieratic Byzantine style with large stylised eyes and formal frontality. The surrounding Latin legend reads DN IVSTINIANVS PP AVG (Dominus Noster Iustinianus Perpetuus Augustus), distributed around the periphery of the flan. |
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| Obverse lettering | DN IVSTINI(ANVS PP) AVG (Translation: Dominus Noster Iustinianus Perpetuus Augustus) |
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| Additional information |
Justinian's follis reform of 538 AD increased the weight of the 40-nummi piece significantly from its earlier, lighter incarnation — a deliberate response to complaints that the post-reform 537 coins were still underweight relative to their face value. The regnal year system introduced on these bronzes, marking each coin with the year of Justinian's reign, was an administrative innovation with no real precedent in earlier Roman or Byzantine coinage.
Constantinople, Nicomedia, Cyzicus, Antioch, and Thessalonica all struck this denomination concurrently, and mint attribution remains one of the more active areas of specialist debate for the series.