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Very much enjoyed your video. As Byzantine is my main collecting focus, I'm excited for you and your viewers to learn more about this area. There is a massive amount of variation within the series, and much of it is quite afforable. I do suggest to any collector, don't get caught up with the rarities or ~2600 Sear numbers. Instead, focus on buying high quality, common pieces which you can apprecaite. From there, branch out into the many many less common pieces.
Will you make a part 2 to this video talking about the scyphate coinage of the 11th century and beyond? I feel like not many people talk about it but they have to be some of my favorite ancients.
Yet another great video! I wonder why Byzantine coin art is so crude compared to Roman coins. Definitely mustn't be for a lack of artisans. They made the hagia sophia, they knew how to many wonderful art
I love the later byzantine coins with the detailed depictions of Christ. Goes to show they didn't just forget how to make realistic designs they just chose not to.
That would be an interesting topic for a future video. How Byzantine coins are missunderstood. They arent "ugly" for a lack of artistic skill on the part of the byzantines!
I like how affordable Byzantine gold coins are compared to Greek & Roman gold coins. Last year I bought my first ancient gold coin, a Byzantine gold Semissis of emperor Justinian. One of my favorite Byzantine coins in my collection is my silver Hexagram of emperor Heraclius. The Hexagram was an emergency currency minted using silver salvaged from church relics. As you mentioned earlier, silver was scarce in the Byzantine economy. Emperor Heraclius was forced to melt down church relics to make silver Hexagrams to pay for the costs of his wars against the Persians and Arabs.
I read a story about Western soldiers landing in Turkey or S. Italy at the end of WW1. They ran across a young man as they landed and asked him who he was. He replied, “I am a Roman sir.”
Glad you've finally moved into Byzantine Coins. I've been collecting them for many years. My favorite of the early period you covered in this video are the Follis coins. I am very partial to Follis of Justianian I.. I currently have 30 follis of him - always on the look out for, as I trying to have one follis for every regal year (but buy them even if they are a regal year I already own)
@@ClassicalNumismatics Amazing! Really looking forward. In my opinion, one of the videos should be about the important role of the Byzantine coins as personal piety items and the consequent desacralization of these coins, as the images on them simplified and became increasingly crude from the 13th to the 15th century.
The trachies of the commenid dynasty are probably the most illusive, most people ignore them for their poor quality but having seen some beautiful fully silvered ones, there’s definitely material for a second video and later Byzantium.
Great overview of Byzantine copper/bronze coins. I collected a number of late empire/Byzantine coins while living in Turkey as a boy. But I didn't fully appreciate them until years later when I read the 3 volume History of the Byzantine Empire by A. A. Vasiliev. This was during the Balkan war of the 1990's. I remember succinctly reading Vasiliev's opening lines introducing the Slavic invasions into Greece. My head nearly exploded when I realized I wasn't just reading the region's history... I was reading its news!
Nice introduction to Byzantine numismatics. By the way, the tremissis of Anastasius in your presentation was struck in Italy by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. The giveaway is the PF in the obverse legend for "pius felix" instead of the PP found on tremisses struck by Anastasius which always have PP for "perpetuus." See Mediaeval Coins of Europe vol. I, 114-115.
Thanks for making a video on this topic. I have a fairly complete chronological collection of Byzantine coins. Perhaps you could do a future video on the anonymous folles.
I have various bronze denominations of follis and half follis coins, they are much nicer if you can buy them with the portrait fully shown with least wear. I also have two gold tremises and five gold solidos coins which are very good value for gold ancient coins. I also have a silver miliaresion coin. I really enjoy your channel it is well researched, presented and the narration is first class. I have learnt so much from watching these videos.
loving this video. I wish it was my time to start loading up on my late Roman coinage. But sadly there are so many imperial, Republican, local coinage of the age keeps me busy. But I cant wait!
My first coins were Aurelian and Constantine the Great, I've not had a structured collection just grab anything to get all the emperors and research everything I can about all of the coins and the emperors lives.
Slabbing is mostly done on modern coins, US coins in particular, where it is not recommended to touch coins with your bare hands. Most ancient coin collectors prefer to handle them with their hands. And since all ancient coins have been cleaned to some extent, it doesnt do any harm to them.
I would definitely like more on Byzantine coins! I have a few cup coins from later, which are neat but some of the absolute worst made coins Ive ever seen with a crack nearly splitting one in half, poor strikes, and even restrikes so poorly set that copies of royal figures are at multiple angles. Would be cool to learn more info!
With the use of these coins, I would put my mind in a poor country, say Eritrea, where a 1 Euro or 15 Nakfa is a lot of money and can buy food and banknotes of 100 Nakfa or 6.5 Euro is enough for the economy, so maybe these base metal coins can buy more than we believe. Nice coins and presentation.
Missed opportunity to make your viewership collectively groan by saying, "Alright, so let's get byzy because we've got a lot to cover" after the intro, but great video otherwise !
The coins you are showing have a nice patine . Can you explain why the byzantine coins are ruder and badly struck and how the silver shortening was recreated and consolidated
Would you like to support the channel and my work?
Help the Channel by "Buying me a Coffee": www.buymeacoffee.com/classicalnumismatics
Become a member! th-cam.com/users/classicalnumismaticsjoin
Very much enjoyed your video. As Byzantine is my main collecting focus, I'm excited for you and your viewers to learn more about this area. There is a massive amount of variation within the series, and much of it is quite afforable. I do suggest to any collector, don't get caught up with the rarities or ~2600 Sear numbers. Instead, focus on buying high quality, common pieces which you can apprecaite. From there, branch out into the many many less common pieces.
Very wise words for the Byz collectors out there! Hopefuly I'll learn even more about Byzes in 2025 :)
Will you make a part 2 to this video talking about the scyphate coinage of the 11th century and beyond? I feel like not many people talk about it but they have to be some of my favorite ancients.
Certainly! I just need to study the period a bit more. :)
Thanks Leo that's marvellous information about a complex subject.
You are correct it's underappreciated 👍
Thanks Gordon! Glad you enjoyed it. Do you have any byzantines in your collection?
@ClassicalNumismatics oh yes Leo ,the normal gold issues and a goodly amount of Bronze coins.👍🙂
I finally ordered Anastasius last week. It may even be in my PO box now.
What denominations were the Byzantine bowl coins usually?
Completely different monetary system, I'll eventually make a video on them :)
that Heraclius 10 nummi looks great
It does! So much detail in such a small coin, its impressive
I wish I had more than one thumbs-up to give to this video.
Im happy to see that you enjoyed it that much! :)
Yet another great video! I wonder why Byzantine coin art is so crude compared to Roman coins. Definitely mustn't be for a lack of artisans. They made the hagia sophia, they knew how to many wonderful art
I love the later byzantine coins with the detailed depictions of Christ. Goes to show they didn't just forget how to make realistic designs they just chose not to.
That would be an interesting topic for a future video. How Byzantine coins are missunderstood. They arent "ugly" for a lack of artistic skill on the part of the byzantines!
@ClassicalNumismatics 100% agree
@@ClassicalNumismaticsa cross-comparison with Byzantine hagiography would be highly appreciated! Ευχαριστούμε!
византийские фолисы стоят недорого из-за своей массовости,
а редкие выпуски и нечастые мелкие номиналы стоят очень неплохо.
I like how affordable Byzantine gold coins are compared to Greek & Roman gold coins. Last year I bought my first ancient gold coin, a Byzantine gold Semissis of emperor Justinian. One of my favorite Byzantine coins in my collection is my silver Hexagram of emperor Heraclius. The Hexagram was an emergency currency minted using silver salvaged from church relics. As you mentioned earlier, silver was scarce in the Byzantine economy. Emperor Heraclius was forced to melt down church relics to make silver Hexagrams to pay for the costs of his wars against the Persians and Arabs.
Nice! Im looking for a gold piece of Justinian this year. And indeed, these Hexagrams are really interesting, curious pieces!
How much should you pay?
The retail prices I paid are 350 bucks for the gold Semissis and 150 bucks for the silver Hexagram.
LETS GO!!
Thanks for the video!
I love how he manages to produce an ungodly amount of coin content
I read a story about Western soldiers landing in Turkey or S. Italy at the end of WW1. They ran across a young man as they landed and asked him who he was. He replied, “I am a Roman sir.”
Ohh Ive seen that story too! Fascinating
Turkey is close. It was a Greek solider talking to a local boy on the island of Lesbos (modern Greece)
A time traveler from the reign of justinius
A wonderful introductory video. I hope to see more Byzantine content in the future!
So do I! The more varied, the better. He should look at Indian coins as well. These are personal favourites of mine
Glad you've finally moved into Byzantine Coins. I've been collecting them for many years. My favorite of the early period you covered in this video are the Follis coins. I am very partial to Follis of Justianian I.. I currently have 30 follis of him - always on the look out for, as I trying to have one follis for every regal year (but buy them even if they are a regal year I already own)
Waiter, waiter! More byzantine videos please!
"Right away, good Sir!"
Will there be the 2nd part of the Byz. coins series? 8 to 15th century :)
There will absolutely be more videos on byzantine coins! :)
@@ClassicalNumismatics Amazing! Really looking forward. In my opinion, one of the videos should be about the important role of the Byzantine coins as personal piety items and the consequent desacralization of these coins, as the images on them simplified and became increasingly crude from the 13th to the 15th century.
The trachies of the commenid dynasty are probably the most illusive, most people ignore them for their poor quality but having seen some beautiful fully silvered ones, there’s definitely material for a second video and later Byzantium.
God bless Anastasius for delivering us an age of funny portraits in big flans
And Justinian for making these super funny front facing portraits ubiquitous.
Great overview of Byzantine copper/bronze coins. I collected a number of late empire/Byzantine coins while living in Turkey as a boy. But I didn't fully appreciate them until years later when I read the 3 volume History of the Byzantine Empire by A. A. Vasiliev. This was during the Balkan war of the 1990's. I remember succinctly reading Vasiliev's opening lines introducing the Slavic invasions into Greece. My head nearly exploded when I realized I wasn't just reading the region's history... I was reading its news!
What a wonderful story!
Nice introduction to Byzantine numismatics. By the way, the tremissis of Anastasius in your presentation was struck in Italy by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. The giveaway is the PF in the obverse legend for "pius felix" instead of the PP found on tremisses struck by Anastasius which always have PP for "perpetuus." See Mediaeval Coins of Europe vol. I, 114-115.
Would such an immitation be accepted in Constantinople? Would have people noticed it was a copy?
I love Anastasius Dicorus hes so brilliant, getting a nice semissis or tremissis of him is a major priority for my collection.
Thank you
No problem! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Thanks for making a video on this topic. I have a fairly complete chronological collection of Byzantine coins. Perhaps you could do a future video on the anonymous folles.
Anonymous folles are wonderful! I will definitely make a video on them if I can get my hands on some footage of the complete set.
@@ClassicalNumismatics While you're at it, you should try to include trachies and the Latin Empire
@@ClassicalNumismatics What type of footage would you need?
Amazing video as always ! I strive to become like you one day sir, I'd love to be able to teach others too the same way I learn from these videos.
Thank you! Words of encouragement like this help me carry on with this project
I have various bronze denominations of follis and half follis coins, they are much nicer if you can buy them with the portrait fully shown with least wear. I also have two gold tremises and five gold solidos coins which are very good value for gold ancient coins. I also have a silver miliaresion coin. I really enjoy your channel it is well researched, presented and the narration is first class. I have learnt so much from watching these videos.
My favorite byzantine coin i own is of Manuel I Komnenos!
Its a gold cup coin!
Ive got a gold cup one as well! From Alexius Komnenos. One of my favourites. Its super wide, despite being just 4.5 grams in weight
loving this video. I wish it was my time to start loading up on my late Roman coinage. But sadly there are so many imperial, Republican, local coinage of the age keeps me busy. But I cant wait!
My first coins were Aurelian and Constantine the Great, I've not had a structured collection just grab anything to get all the emperors and research everything I can about all of the coins and the emperors lives.
Anastasius I left Justinian a strong empire and he squandered it on expensive wars! I still decided to buy a Justinian I Follis 😂
I alwahs wonder if Justinian decided to go on smaller scale campaigns, with better funding and easier to hold once conquered
Most of your ancient coins I notice aren't sealed in anything.. they are displayed openly?
Slabbing is mostly done on modern coins, US coins in particular, where it is not recommended to touch coins with your bare hands.
Most ancient coin collectors prefer to handle them with their hands. And since all ancient coins have been cleaned to some extent, it doesnt do any harm to them.
I have a couple of byzantine bronze coins, 3-4 with jesus christ on it
Hello dear friend, could you please tell me from where to buy a golden byzantine solidus preferable the Pantocrator?
BABE WAKE UP! PEAK JUST POSTED ABOUT ROME AGAIN!!
The GOAT!! ❤
I would definitely like more on Byzantine coins! I have a few cup coins from later, which are neat but some of the absolute worst made coins Ive ever seen with a crack nearly splitting one in half, poor strikes, and even restrikes so poorly set that copies of royal figures are at multiple angles. Would be cool to learn more info!
With the use of these coins, I would put my mind in a poor country, say Eritrea, where a 1 Euro or 15 Nakfa is a lot of money and can buy food and banknotes of 100 Nakfa or 6.5 Euro is enough for the economy, so maybe these base metal coins can buy more than we believe. Nice coins and presentation.
Missed opportunity to make your viewership collectively groan by saying, "Alright, so let's get byzy because we've got a lot to cover" after the intro, but great video otherwise !
What’s the background music
It's from the videogame Crusader kings 2
i saw some coin 3/4 or 1/2 why ?no change ?
My dads name is Byzantine but everybody calls him Buzant , he's mix between Armenian & Greek.
I'm your 666th viewer. Oops! Sorry! 😅
The coins you are showing have a nice patine .
Can you explain why the byzantine coins are ruder and badly struck and how the silver shortening was recreated and consolidated