Byzantine Empire Coin - Jesus Follis

History of the Artifact These gorgeous Byzantine bronze coins are some of the few coins ever minted featuring the portrait of Christ. Genuine pieces of history, they tell the story of a millenary Empire entangled in a heroic struggle for survival against centuries of attempted invasions by the Ottoman empire culminating in the fall of Constantinople in the year 1453.  When the Roman Empire split in 395 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire  (Byzantine Empire) had to begin minting its own coins separately from Rome. In the early 5th century, it began minting the same Follis the Roman Empire once minted with a new design featuring symbols relevant to the new Byzantine Emperors. The early designs still featured various pagan gods, including the sun god ‘Sol’ among others. With Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, the designs began to feature Christian imagery such as the ‘Chi-Ro’ (☧)  - one of the earliest known Christian symbols.  By the tenth century, the Byzantine Emperors abandone