1084057 | BYZANTINE. Justinian II. (Emperor, first reign, 685-695 AD). AV Solidus. NGC Ch. AU (Choice About Uncirculated) Strike 4/5 Surface 4/5. Constantinople. d N IhS ChS REX RGNANTIXM. Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator; raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels, cross behind head / d N IЧSTINIANUS MЧLTЧS AN. Crowned facing bust of Justinian II, wearing loros and holding cross potent on three steps. Sear 1248.

This coin bears the first numismatic portrait of Christ. It depicts Christ Pantocrator and was copied from a representation found in the Imperial Palace that was itself based on the head of the Zeus of Phidias from Olympia. The decision to place Christ on the coinage was a momentous one: until this point the Moslem Arab conquerors of the Byzantine East and Africa had been content to use Byzantine solidi as their sole gold coinage. The appearance of a bust of Christ, however, was unacceptable to them and led to the introduction of a new, national coinage, first with a ‘standing Caliph’, based on the figure of Justinian II, in 693/4 and then the non-figural epigraphic dinars that began in 696/7 (A.H. 77). .


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