GREEK, ROMAN AND BYZANTINE OBJECTS ... - Hellenic College

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from the seventh century onwards until the Late Byzantine gold coins were
wafer-thin, cup-shaped (also known as 'scyphate') and could be bent by hand.
The major coin mints of the Byzantine period varied in number from
fourteen under Justinian I (527-565) to Constantinople alone from the late ninth
century until the late eleventh century when some of the provincial mints began
to reappear. During the following two centuries, many mints were operated,
both by the emperors and autonomous local rulers (Cyprus, Rhodes, Nicaea,
Trebizond). The Constantinople and Trebizond mints survived until the
conquest of the cities by the Turks.
The imagery of the Byzantine coins continued the conventions of the Late
Roman coins. On the obverse was the portrait of the emperor, now facing front,
rather than in profile. On the reverse, various Christian symbols, primarily the
Cross, but also Victory or an angel, which soon merged into one.
The first significant departure from this practice were the gold coins of
Justinian II (685-691 and 705-711), who placed the bust of Christ on the obverse
and a half or full-length portrait of the Emperor on the reverse. The Iconoclast
emperors removed the bust of Christ from their coins but this imagery was
revived again after the end of Iconoclasm in the mid-ninth century and
variations of the figure of Christ on the obverse of the coins became the norm
until the end of the Byzantine Empire.
Byzantine coin design and imagery influenced the style of the early
Islamic coins and those of the first Western kingdoms.