Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Imitation of Follis of Constans II
Not on view
The Byzantine Empire issued the gold solidus, or nomisma, used primarily for large transactions such as tax payments, and several denominations of copper coins, the money of daily business transactions. Mints in Antioch and Alexandria supplied the majority of the coinage circulated in the southern provinces. The newly established Arab government inherited an efficient monetary system and made few changes during its first decades. The caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) introduced several issues of distinctively Islamic coinage.
During the first decades of Islamic rule, Byzantine and newly minted Arab coins circulated together. The new coinage imitated Byzantine prototypes. Research has shown that these coins, without date or mintmark, were struck according to the declining weight standard of contemporary Byzantine coinage.
Coins such as this close imitation of a Constans II follis represent a significant portion of early Islamic coinage.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
