1000 YEARS OLD

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1935, Page 13

1000 YEARS OLD

COIN OF ROMAN EMPIRE. EXHIBITION AT SYDNEY. A gold coin of the later Roman Empire, more than 1600 years old, but splendidly preserved, has lately been exhibited in the window of a Sydney jewellery firm. Though few traces remain of the civilisation which produced it, the coin has scarcely been touched by the hand cf time. Portraits of the Emperor in whose reign it was made, on one side, and of his father and son, on the other, are as clear to-day as when they were stamped, some time between 829 and 842 Recently a young man called at the office of a city firm and offered for sale a number of articles, including the coin, which he explained had been in his family for generations. He was informed that the coin had considerable value as a collector’s piece. Officials of the Australian Museum said that the coin, a solidus, was one of the larger gold tokens of the later Roman era. The coin was made in the reign of Theophilus, one of the Byzantine Emperors. Little is known of him except that he was almost constantly at war with file caliphs of Bagdad. Except that the coin has no milled edge, it is very similar in general appearance to a modern coin. It is slightly smaller than a shilling, of almost pure gold, and has an intrinsic value of about 30s. On one side is shown a portrait of Theophilus, wearing a crown with a cross, a mantle, and a robe, with a patriarchal cross (apparently signifying that he was high priest as well as monarch) ir his right hand. On the other side are shown the father of Theophilus, Michael 11., and his son, Constantine.