Ravenna Mint Justinian

CNG 111, Lot: 844. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Justinian I. 527-565. AV Solidus (21mm, 4.46 g, 6h). Ravenna mint, 6th officina. Struck 552-565. D N IVSTINI ANVS P P AVC, helmeted and cuirassed facing bust, holding globus cruciger in right hand, shield over left shoulder / VICTOR IA AVCCC, angel standing facing, holding long staff surmounted by christogram in right hand and globus cruciger in left; star in right field; S//CONOB. DOC (333b); MIBE 37⁵ = Monte Judica Hoard 68 (same dies); Ranieri 321 (same dies as illustration); SB 312. EF, a few minor hairlines. Well struck on a broad flan.

Ravenna, the fifth century capital of the Western Roman Empire, passed under the control of Odovacer in AD 476 and was captured by Theodoric the Ostrogoth a decade later, becoming the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom. During the Gothic Wars, Justinian I's great general Belisarius recaptured the city for the Empire in AD 540, employing the ruse that he accepted a Gothic invitation to have himself proclaimed Emperor of the West. Once occupying the city, Belisarius renounced all claim to the title and handed Ravenna over to Justinian, who commenced striking coins in his name at the city’s long-established mint. Ravenna remained the Byzantine capital of Italy until it finally fell to the Lombards in AD 751.