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Æ22 - Armeh
| Issuer | Aksum |
|---|---|
| Year | 535-550 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.37 g |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central motif of a cross potent within a dotted inner circle, with a Ge'ez votive legend disposed around the circumference in the outer field. The reverse design follows the standard late Aksumite formula of a prominent Christian cross flanked by royal acclamation text. The flan is chipped at the upper left, and the surfaces exhibit extensive green cuprite patination. The hammered fabric results in slight irregularity of the flan edge, consistent with Aksumite bronze coinage of this period. |
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| Mintage | ND (535-550) |
| Additional information |
Armeh is one of the more obscure Aksumite kings, known almost entirely through his coinage rather than any surviving textual record. His reign falls within a turbulent stretch for the kingdom — the mid-sixth century saw Aksum overextended following Kaleb's costly campaigns into South Arabia, and the royal treasury bore the consequences. Bronze issues from this period show a kingdom in fiscal retreat, having already abandoned the gold and silver denominations that earlier kings used to project commercial power across Red Sea trade networks.
The BMC Aksum attribution places this squarely in the corpus assembled by S.C. Munro-Hay, whose cataloguing of Aksumite bronzes remains the foundational reference for the series.