Coronation dinar of Stefan Dušan

At the time when the Serbian Empire was the most dominant power in the Balkans, while the state with a robust central government reached the highest point of its structure and organisation, the coinage of Stefan Dušan, harmonised with the imperial conquests, economic rise and state monetisation, resulted in extensive monetary production. It acquired its representative expression in the "coronation dinar", the first imperial issuance that was created on the occasion of Dušan's coronation in Skopje in 1346. Dušan's "coronation dinar", made of quality silver and issued in a considerable volume and special technique of master moulder work, was a coin of a high standard in Europe at the time. It was gladly accepted outside the borders of medieval Serbia, and special attention was paid to the royal representation on it. As an expression of the ruling ideology, it became a reflection of the iconographic programme that placed the first Serbian emperor as the Byzantine Basileus at the centre.