Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1206. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LEO V and CONSTANTINE. 813-820 AD. AV Solidus (4.45 gm). Constantinople mint. LE On bASILEU', crowned facing bust of Leo, holding cross potent and akakia / CONST ANT' dES' E, crowned facing bust of Constantine, holding globus cruciger and akakia. DOC III 3a; BN 1; SB 1627. EF, die flaws in reverse field. ($750) 

The reverse legend of this type ends with either E or X, both found engraved over the other. On this specimen, however, the E is engraved over a P. Leo was commander of Byzantine forces in Armenia when the rout of Michael I at Versinikia led to Leo’s acclamation as emperor. Leo's reign was characterized not by military activity, but by religious controversy brought on by his vehement iconoclastic views. His opponents committed the ultimate sacrilegious act of assassinating him in Hagia Sophia on Christmas Day, 820. His godson Theophilus would avenge his murder after his accession in 829, even though the conspirators had been associates of Theophilus' father Michael II.