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Follis - Constantine VI and Irene
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire (Byzantine states) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Currency | Second Solidus Nomisma (720-1092) |
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| Obverse description | Facing crowned bust of Empress Irene in three-quarter view, attired in the imperial loros, holding a cross-on-globe in the right hand and a cross-headed sceptre in the left. The effigy is rendered in the flat, hieratic style characteristic of middle Byzantine coinage, with emphasis on frontal symmetry and imperial regalia rather than portraiture. |
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| Reverse description | Facing beardless bust of Emperor Constantine VI, wearing a jewelled crown and chlamys, holding a globus cruciger in the right hand. Two pellets appear to the left of the bust and a cross with pellet to the right. The figural group is placed above a horizontal bar, below which appears the large denomination letter M flanked by X and N, with A beneath, all executed in the angular, formulaic style of late 8th-century Byzantine bronze coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Constantine VI was blinded on his mother Irene's orders in 797 — an act calculated to render him unfit to rule under Byzantine tradition. The mutilation was severe enough that he died from it shortly after, leaving Irene to reign as sole emperor, the first woman to hold that title in Constantinople. Joint issues like this one predate that rupture, struck during the uneasy co-regency when Irene effectively controlled policy while her son nominally shared the throne.
Sear 1598 is among the less commonly encountered folles of the late 8th century, a period when copper coinage quality declined sharply from earlier standards.