Michael

Intro ...

(811-813)

l

CONSTANTINOPLE

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Solidus. Constantinople mint. Sear 1615.

Obv: mıxᴀʜᴧ ьᴀꜱıⳑє'. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding cross potent and akakia; in field to left, pellet.

Rev: ⲑєᴏꜰᴠⳑᴀcτᴏѕ ∂єѕᴘ' (followed by є or x). Facing bust of Theophylactus, beardless, wearing crown and loros, and holding globe cruciger and cruciform scepter.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Tremissis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1615ᴀ.

Obv: mıxᴀʜᴧ ьᴀꜱıⳑ'. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding cross potent and akakia; in field to left, pellet.

Rev: ⲑєᴏꜰᴠⳑᴀcτᴏѕ ∂є' (followed by є). Facing bust of Theophylactus, beardless, wearing crown and loros, and holding globe cruciger and cruciform scepter.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AR Miliaresion. Constantinople mint. Sear 1616.

Obv: ıҺsчs xʀısτчs nıᴋᴀ. Cross potent on 3 steps; triple border /

Rev: + mıxᴀ / ʜᴧ s ⲑєᴏꜰᴠ / ⳑᴀcτє єc ⲑ (or ⲑ') / ьᴀꜱıⳑıꜱ ʀᴏ / mᴀıᴏn in five lines (sometimes with pellet between τ and є in third line); triple border.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1617.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ьᴀꜱıⳑє'. Bust facing, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding globe cruciger and cruciform scepter /

Rev: Large M, between XXX (to left) and NNN (to right); cross above, A below.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). Æ Follis. Constantinople mint. Sear 1618.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ꜱ ⲑєᴏꜰ'. Facing busts of Michael, with short beard (on the left) and Theophylactus, beardless (on the right), both crowned, the former wearing chlamys, the latter loros /

Rev: Large M, between XXX (to left) and NNN (to right); cross above, A below.

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SYRACUSE

Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Solidus. Syracuse mint. Sear 1619.

Obv: mıx ……. (?). Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding cross potent /

Rev: mıx ……. (?). Similar bust of Michael, but wearing chlamys and holding akakia and globe cruciger.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Solidus. Syracuse mint. Sear 1620.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ьᴀ (or similar). Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding cross potent; sometimes with pellet in field to right /

Rev: ⲑєᴏȽчⳑᴀcτ… (or similar). Facing bust of Theophylactus, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger (sometimes with pellet on either side of cross).

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Semissis. Syracuse mint. Sear 1621.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ьᴀꜱıⳑ. Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger and akakia /

Rev: mıxᴀʜⳑ ∂єѕᴘᴏτ. Similar bust of Michael, but holding cross potent on globus instead of plain globe cruciger.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Semissis. Syracuse mint. Sear 1622.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ьᴀ. Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger and akakia /

Rev: ᴛҺєᴏΦчⳑᴀ (or similar). Facing bust of Theophylactus, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding cross potent on globus, and akakia.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). AV Tremissis. Syracuse mint. Sear 1623.

Obv: mıxᴀʜⳑ ьᴀꜱıⳑ. Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger and akakia /

Rev: mıxᴀʜⳑ ∂є. Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding cross potent and akakia.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). Æ Follis. Syracuse mint. Sear 1624.

Obv: Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding cross potent; to left M; to right I X A /

Rev: Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger.

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Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). Æ Follis. Syracuse mint. Sear 1625.

Obv: Facing bust of Michael, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding cross potent; to left M; to right I X A /

Rev: ⲑєᴏΦᴠ (or similar). Facing bust of Theophylactus, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globe cruciger.

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Michael was crowned on the day of Stauracius’ deposition, but his reign proved to be short. Like his predecessor, he suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Bulgarians (22 June 813). Less than three weeks later the general Leo was proclaimed emperor by the army, and on 1 July entered Constantinople in triumph. Michael abdicated and assumed the monastic garb the same day, leaving the way free for the crowning of his rival. He died many years later, as the monk Athanasius, on 1 January 840, the anniversary of the death of Stauracius whom he had himself deposed.
Michael's son Theophylact was crowned emperor by the patriarch on 25 December 811. He was mutilated and tonsured on the day of his father’s abdication, and as the monk Eustratios he died on one of the Princes Islands on 15 January 845.
Michael's coinage is similar to that of his immediate predecessors, but he revived the miliaresion for the coronation of his son Theophylact after it had not been struck during the preceding two reigns. The coinage of the reign falls into two phases, that of Michael I alone (October-December 81), specimens of which are very rare, and that of Michael and Theophylact (December 811-July 813). The attributions of the coins involve certain difficulties, since they have been confused with those of Michael II and even Michael III. There are no coins in Michael’s name attributable to Naples.

CONSTANTINOPLE

No solidus of Michael's sole reign is known, though specimens may still come to light. If they do, they will probably show a reversion to Irene's practice of exhibiting the imperial bust on both faces of the coin, and resemble the solidus assigned below to Michael II save that the inscription will be preceded by a pellet, or by nothing at all, instead of by a star. Sabatier assigned to Michael I a solidus bearing the bust of Christ, but this and the corresponding semisis, as Wroth pointed out, belong to Michael III.
The obverse of the solidus of the joint reign of Michael I and Theophylact is the same as that of Nicephorus and Stauracius, but Theophylact wears the loros and holds a globus cruciger and cross scepter. Control letters are Є or X. No semisses are known, but there is a unique tremissis in the former Goodacre collection, now deposited on loan in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The miliaresion revives the type employed by the Isaurians, but the emperor is given for the first time the full title of basileus Romaion. This was a subtle way of indicating that the title of basileus alone, which Michael had been compelled to accord to Charlemagne, carried with it no rights of sovereignty over the “Romans.” There are generally two or three circles of dots on the coins, the precise number being often difficult to ascertain owing to clipping or weak striking, but Tolstoi 4 appears to have only two on the obverse and one on the reverse.

Whether or not folles should be attributed to Michael I, and to the co-rulership of Michael I and Theophylact, has several times been discussed. Folles exist having a single bust (wearing loros) with the inscription MIXAHL BASILЄs, and others having two busts, wearing chlamys and loros respectively, with the inscription MIXAHL S ΘЄOF’. De Saulcy attributed the first series to Michael I and the second to Michael II, but with a note saying that the later might also belong to Michael I. Wroth (p.406 and note 2) gave both series to Michael I, his reason in the second case being that, while ΘЄOF’ was ambiguous, there existed a series of large module coins with ΘЄOFILOS in full; to attribute the ΘЄOF’ coins to Michael II would leave Michael I with no Constantinopolitan folles at all, to which one may add that this abbreviated form would be ambiguous only in the reign of Michael II, not in that of Michael I. Tolstoi reverted to de Saulcy’s view, apparently because the inscription on a specimen of the two-bust series in the Hermitage seemed to end ΘЄOFIL’. Metcalf attributed both series to Michael II,mainly for iconographical reasons. The coins of Michael I alone revive a loros-clad bust not used for a senior emperor since Irene, and he suggests that this may have been a counter-manifesto to the rebel Thomas’ claim to be Constantine VI. As for the two-bust series, similar ones of preceding reigns had shown both emperors wearing the chlamys, while the chlamys-loros combination on these coins corresponds to that of the large-module folles of Michael II and Theophilus and those of Theophilus and Constantine.

These iconographical arguments, and more especially the supposed political implications of the use of a loros-clad bust, are not altogether convincing, but the conclusion seems to me correct. That the ΘЄOF’ coins belong to Michael II is shown by the fact that one specimen at Dumbarton Oaks reads ΘЄOFI, like the Hermitage one, and so cannot refer to Theophylact, while the shape of the M on the coins, normally very tall and narrow, is identical with that of the M on the large-module folles of Michael II and Theophilus and quite different from the shorter and broader M of the folles of Irene and of Nicephorus and Stauracius. This can be seen by comparing Pl. XX. 7.2-8.6 with Pl. XX. 9.2-10.1 on the one hand and with Pls. XV. 2.1, 2.3 and XVI. 4.1-5.6 on the other. The transition from the one form to the other occurred during the seven-year reign of Leo V, under whom both varieties are found (Pl. XVIII. 6.2-7.5), and the occurrence of the tall and narrow one on the folles of Michael alone, and of the two-bust ones with ΘЄOFI, shows that both these series must be dated after 820, and not before 813. There are in consequence no copper coins of Constantinople definitely attributable to the reign of Michael I, though the anonymous ones of Nicephorus and Stauracius may have continued to be struck during the greater part of it.

SICILY

Michael I's Sicilian coinage is rare, especially in gold. There is no justification for confusing it with the coinage of Michael III (842-67), though this has sometimes been done, for the Sicilian gold of the mid-ninth century is badly debased and the design of the imperial bust, with a long emaciated face and hollow cheeks, is quite different from what it had been earlier. As between Michael I and Michael II (820-29), where the mutual resemblance is much closer, a decisive criterion is in most cases the module, since this was reduced toward the end of Leo V's reign and solidi of Michael II are 3 or 4 mm, smaller than those of Michael I. Other criteria are details which link Michael II’s coins with those of Theophilus and the later issues of Leo V.

(from DOC vol. lll)

Coinage