Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1117. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $2400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUSTINIAN II. Second reign, 705-711 AD. AV Solidus (4.36 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 705 AD. Facing bust of Christ, with cross behind head / Crowned facing bust of Justinian, holding cross potent on three steps and patriarchal globus inscribed PAX. DOC II 1; MIB III 1; SB 1413. Superb EF, slightly clipped. ($1000)

The portrait of Christ on the solidus of Justinian's second reign is significantly different from that of his first reign. The portrait of the first reign was an innovation, featuring the likeness of an "all sovereign" Lord, which became known as Christ Pantokrator. The second portrait is of a youthful Christ, more in keeping with traditional icons found in eastern monasteries and dating from the earliest years of the Church. A possible source of inspiration may have come from Justinian's exile among the Khazars, a people who had only recently converted to Judaism. While at the court of the Khazar khagan, Tervel, at Cherson, Justinian met and married the khagan's sister in 703 AD. Justinian's return to Constantinople was followed by a wave of brutal repression, and in 711 AD, he was overthrown by Philippicus Bardanes. Bardanes reignited the ideology of the iconoclasts, and the portrait of Christ was removed from the coinage. Christ's portrait would not be seen again on Byzantine coinage until the reign of Michael III (842-867 AD), during whose minority iconoclasm was finally overthrown.