Silver Byzantine coins pendants sterling silver 925

  SILVER BYZANTINE COINS  Though a variety of “ceremonial” silver Byzantine coins were made, we’ll examine just the principal issues made for regular circulation. Most Byzantine silver coins were struck at the mint in Constantinople. This rule applies to almost every period of Byzantine history except the earliest, during which the only regular issues appear to have been struck at mints in Italy and North Africa. These regions formerly were part of the Roman Empire, but long ago had been lost to Germanic invasions.  The opportunity to strike coins there returned during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527 to 565), when an effort was made to reclaim these lands. All of the early Byzantine silver coins from western mints were small and thin, and were denominated as siliquae (and fractional siliquae) or were valued in terms of copper nummi (typically ranging from 250 to 30 nummi). After Justinian I, such coins also were struck for about two centuries longer, from Tiberius I