Constantine

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(1025-1028)

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CONSTANTINOPLE

Constantine VIII (1025-1028). AV Histamenon nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1815.

Obv: + ıҺs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm (or very similar). Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; triple border.

Rev: + cωnsτᴀnτın ьᴀꜱıⳑєᖸꜱ ʀᴏm (or very similar). Busts facing, with long beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding labarum (sometimes with pellet on shaft) and akakia; triple border.

Notes: thin, spread fabric. Same type as the tetarteron nomisma SB 1816.

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Constantine VIII (1025-1028). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1816.

Obv: + ıҺs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm (or very similar). Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; single border.

Rev: + cωnsτᴀnτın ьᴀꜱıⳑєᖸꜱ ʀᴏm (or very similar). Busts facing, with long beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding labarum (sometimes with pellet on shaft) and akakia; single border.

Notes: small, thick fabric. Same type as the histamenon nomisma SB 1815.

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Constantine VIII (1025-1028). AV Tetarteron nomisma. Constantinople mint. Sear 1817.

Obv: + ıҺs xıs ʀєx ʀєςɴᴀɴᴛınm (or very similar). Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; single border.

Rev: + cωnsτᴀnτın ьᴀꜱıⳑєᖸꜱ ʀᴏm (or very similar). Busts facing, with long beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding globus cruciger and akakia; single border.

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Constantine VIII (1025-1028). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1818.

Obv: + єᴍᴍᴀɴᴏᴠʜᴧ. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and holding book of Gospels with both hands; to left, ıc; to right, xc. [ıc and xc have lines above]

Rev: + ıҺsчs / xʀısᴛчs / ьᴀꜱıⳑєч / ьᴀꜱıⳑє in four lines; ornaments above and below the legend.

Notes: SB 1813 and 1818 are one and the same type, Anonymous Follis Class A2/A3.

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Constantine VIII had been Augustus since 962, and his co-emperorship had been punctiliously acknowledged on the coinage of Basil II, but not until the latter's death on 15 December 1025 did he become effectively emperor. His reign was as uneventful as it was brief. He fell seriously ill on 9 November 1028, hastily regulated the succession by marrying his second daughter Zoe to Romanus Argyrus, an elderly and undistinguished nobleman, and died three days afterward on the 12th.

Wroth’s account of the gold coinage of the reign, which is common, is seriously astray, since he has not separated histamena and tetartera and has attributed to Constantine VIII one group of coins belonging to Constantine IX. His Type 3 (below, pp. 740-1, Nos. 3.1-18; Pl. LVIII. 3) has a quite different portrait from the others, with a short beard instead of a flowing, divided one, and its reduced fineness indicates a later date. It must be transferred back to Constantine IX, to whom it had been given by Sabatier. This reattribution is confirmed by the Akcakoca hoard (1953), in which many specimens of this type were found with others of Constantine IX, but none of Constantine VIII. There remain to Constantine VIII one type of histamenon and two of tetartera. It may be conjectured that the tetarteron having a type corresponding to that of the histamenon is the earlier of the two, the type being subsequently altered in order to reduce the possibility of confusion between the two denominations.

No silver coins are known which can be assigned to Constantine VIII. Wroth (p.492, note 1) cited very doubtfully a specimen attributed to him in the Moustier catalogue (No. 4091, wrongly numbered 4157 on Pl. VII), pointing out that the portrait is that of Constantine VII. It is in fact a pattern solidus of this emperor that was never struck (above, p.500). There is at Dumbarton Oaks a one-third miliaresion which Bellinger and I originally attributed to Constantine VIII, but since the emperor's name is spelled KωN, while Constantine VIII is invariably and Constantine IX almost invariably spelled CωN, I have now no doubt that it belongs to Constantine X (below, p. 765, and p.773, No. 7b).

There is no copper coinage in Constantine's name, the mint presumably continuing to strike Class A2 of the Anonymous Folles in use under Basil II.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage