Extremely Rare Artavasdus Accession Solidus

CNG 100, Lot: 2041. Estimate $30000. Sold for $40000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Artavasdus. 741/2-743. AV Solidus (20mm, 4.46 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 741/2. 6 APτAЧA-SDOS MЧLτ, crowned facing bust, holding patriarchal cross / IhSЧS XRIS τЧS ҺICA, cross potent set on three steps; CONOB. DOC (1) = A. A. Boyce, “A Solidus of Artavasdus,” MN V, pp. 89-90, pl. XV, 1 = Füeg 1 (same dies); SB 1541. EF, scattered light marks. Extremely rare, perhaps the fourth known. The only example in CoinArchives (CNG 78 [14 May 2008], lot 1885) hammered for $42,000.

Artavasdus was an able general who rose to prominence under Leo III and earned the hand of the emperor’s daughter Anna. 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 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, replacing 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.