Sale: Nomos 9, Lot: 324. Estimate CHF45000.  Closing Date: Monday, 20 October 2014.  Sold For CHF44000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Leo V the Armenian, 813-820. Solidus (Gold, 21mm, 4.44 g 6), Constantinople, 813. .LϵOn bASILϵu’ Facing bust of Leo V with short beard, wearing chlamys and crown with cross, holding cross potent in his right hand and akakia in his left. Rev. LϵOn dϵSPOtIS✶X Facing bust of Leo V with short beard, wearing loros and crown with cross, holding globus cruciger in his right hand. DOC 1. Füeg 1.A. SB 1626. Extremely rare, perhaps the finest piece known of the less than ten recorded examples. Good extremely fine.

From the Canonicus collection, ex Classical Numismatic Group 93, 22 May 2013, 1386.

Leo V was the son of the Patrician Bardas and was of Armenian descent. He was a supporter of Nikephoros I, but was exiled due to his marriage to a woman disapproved of by the emperor. When Nikephoros was killed by the Bulgarians in 811 his successor Michael I recalled Leo; after a further disaster against the Bulgarians in 813 Michael abdicated and Leo became emperor. He proved to be a competent emperor but was murdered by supporters of his old comrade Michael the Amorian, who became emperor in his stead.