Extremely Rare Artavasdus Accession Solidus

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 1885. Estimate $50000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $42000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Artavasdus. 742-743. AV Soldius (4.41 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 742. 6 APτAЧA SDOS MЧLτ, crowned facing bust, holding patriarchal cross / IhSЧS XRIS τЧS nICA, cross potent on three steps; CONOB. DOC 1 = A.A. Boyce, “A Solidus of Artavasdus,” MN V, pp. 89-90, pl. XV, 1 (same dies); SB 1541. EF, minor marks. Extremely rare, possibly the third known.

Artavasdus was an able general who rose to prominence under Leo III and earned the hand of the emperor’s daughter Anna. In 742, a year after the death of Leo, he usurped the throne from his brother-in-law Constantine V. Artavasdus quickly raised his son Nicephorus to the rank of co-emperor, and most of the scant surviving coins from his reign feature a portrait of Nicephorus on the reverse. This exceptionally rare coin is from the usurper’s first issue, before the elevation of Nicephorus, and features the canonical cross potent on three steps reverse. Artavasdus was an iconodule whose decision to restore the icons was well received by the populace. The reverse legend on this rare issue, IhSЧS XRISτЧS nICA, replaced the usual VICTORIA AVGЧ legend found on previous solidi of this type, achieves a different religious tone than had appeared on the gold issues of Leo and Constantine, and may have been chosen to appease a frustrated church and citizenry.