JUSTINIAN I, 16 Nummi in 6th Cent.Thessalonica, Imperial Byzantine Emperor Coin

Description

JUSTINIAN I, Byzantine Emperor 527-565
A.D
.
Though Justinian’s reign is said to have marked the start of a golden age for the Byzantine Empire during which the Roman Empire almost restored all of the territorial boundaries of the old Roman Empire, Justinian himself was considered to have been a fairly weak emperor.
He was lucky to have followed after the Anastasius administration, which had left the treasury full.
He was also very fortunate to have had at his command the highly capable General Belisarius, a man whose personal character military prowess had been unequaled in Roman history since the Emperor Trajan.
It was under Belisarius’ command that the Roman army reconquered lands that had not been part of the Empire for centuries.
The interested reader is referred to
The Secret History,
written by Procopius and recently translated (again) into English.
It is a fascinating account of life in the sixth century Byzantine court.
BYZANTINE NUMMI COINS
Though the Western Roman Empire, with its capital of Rome, finally collapsed in the fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire with its capital Constantinople, continued for an other thousand years until about 1453 A.D.  This era of Roman history is called the
Byzantine
era.  These coins, among many other types of coins, were very different from those struck during Rome’s Imperial period.  The featured coins are from the nummi series of coins.  The featured coin here is called a 16 Nummi, one of the smallest in the series.  A follis was worth 40 Nummi.  For some perspective, the most valuable coin of the time was the gold solidus worth 420 follis.
The reverse had a large letter indicating the coin denomination according to numerology (M or mu = 40, K or kappa = 20, I or iota = 10, and E or epsilon = 5).  Sometimes the coin's denomination was designated with one or more X's.
This coin was struck in the
ancient Byzantine capital city of
Thessalonica.
Here are its attrib
utes:
JUSTINIAN I, AE Follis (19-21 mm, 6.34 gm)
OBV:  DN IVSTINIANVS PP AVG, pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right
REV:   Large I; A left; dot-cross-dot above; SP rightw
EXE:   TES       Thessalonica mint    SB 176    527-565 A.D.
As usual the pictures do not necessarily show off the coins in their entirety.
Let me know if you have questions.
Absolute Guarantee of Authenticity
I have collected Roman coins for many years and have always bought coins from trusted, reputable dealers. The coins I sell are ancient currency minted under the authority of the Roman and Byzantine Empires.  The details I describe (emperor, location, legends, etc) are derived from well-known and certified attribution sources.  The descriptions are guaranteed accurate as much as the condition of the coin allows.  This
Guarantee of Authenticity
does not make any claim or estimate of the value or grades of the coin(s).
I will send each coin that I have attributed in a 2X2 coin holder on which is written all important identifiable legends and features.
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