“Pattern” Solidus

CNG 99, Lot: 824. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Leo III the "Isaurian". 717-741. AR Pattern solidus or ceremonial issue (19mm, 2.25 g, 6h). Constantinople mint, 8th officina. Struck 717-720. Helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding spear and shield / Cross potent set on three steps; H//CONOB. DOC 20; MIB 23; Füeg 2.5; SB 1511. VF, minor areas of weak strike. Extremely rare.

Such silver issues of Leo are sometimes mistakenly referred to as hexagrams. They were struck in two types, both with the same reverse, but one with a bust type known for solidi (SB 1510) and one which appears to have been rejected for the gold coinage (SB 1511, as our coin). Perhaps Philip Grierson’s explanation of this coinage (from NumChron 1965, p. 184) is still the best. He notes that our type: “...does not correspond to the regular solidus type of Leo’s early years, which consists of a facing bust wearing a chlamys and holding a globus cruciger and an akakia. It should probably be interpreted as a pattern for a solidus that was not approved for the gold but was set aside as a model for the copper. The use of solidus dies for a silver ‘coin’ is easily explained. During the three decades c. 690-c. 720, in the interval between the disappearance of the thick and heavy Heraclian hexagram and the introduction of the thin and light Isaurian miliaresion, the silver ‘coins’ that were needed for customary distributions were frequently struck with the dies normally used for solidi, or, as in this case, with a die prepared originally for solidi but not actually used for them.”