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Nomisma with Basil II Bulgarotonos and His Brother Constantine VIII (reverse)

977-1025

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

The vast number of surviving Byzantine coins attests to the level of trade across the empire. Controlled and supervised by the emperor, the producers of coins took care to represent his authority and reflect his stature. Talented artists were recruited to engrave the dies (molds) used for the striking of coins. Emperors increasingly came to include their heirs and co-emperors on their coinage, as well as other family members or even earlier rulers. Coins were recognized, then as now, as small, portable works of art. With their inscriptions and images, Byzantine coins provide valuable documentation of historical events and a record of the physical appearance of the emperors. The coins shown here include the solidus, the basic gold coin of 24 karats; the tremissis, a gold coin of one-third the weight and value of the solidus; and the nomisma, which in the 10th century replaced the solidus as the standard gold coin.

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  • Title: Nomisma with Basil II Bulgarotonos and His Brother Constantine VIII (reverse)
  • Date Created: 977-1025
  • Physical Dimensions: Diameter: 2.6 cm (1 in.)
  • Provenance: William M. Milliken, Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Type: Coins
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.62.b
  • Medium: gold
  • Department: Medieval Art
  • Culture: Byzantium, Constantinople, 10th-11th century
  • Credit Line: Gift of William Mathewson Milliken, in memory of his father Thomas Kennedy Milliken
  • Collection: MED - Byzantine
  • Accession Number: 1968.62.b
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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