Sale: Triton V, Lot: 2289. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LEO III, the Isaurian, with CONSTANTINE V. 720-741 AD. AV Solidus (4.40 gm). Struck circa 737-741 AD. Constantinople mint. d NO LEO-N PA MUL, crowned facing bust of Leo, holding globus cruciger and akakia / d N CONST-ANTINUS M I, crowned facing bust of Constantine, holding globus cruciger and akakia. DOC III 3f; BN 2-5; SB 1504. Superb EF. ($1000)

Ex William J. Conte Collection (Baldwin's Coin Auction No. 2, 10 May 1994), lot 82; William Herbert Hunt Collection (Sotheby's New York, 5-6 December 1990), lot 574.

Leo III was the founder of the iconoclasts, a group which believed that adoration of icons and other physical representations of religious subjects was wrong. To enforce their beliefs, the iconoclasts destroyed many works of art during their tenure.