Nomos 38

Basil I the Macedonian, with Constantine and Eudocia, 867-886. Solidus (Gold, 19 mm, 4.42 g, 6 h), Constantinople, 867-8. + bASILIOS AЧςЧST' b' Crowned bust of Basil facing, wearing loros and holding a globus surmounted by a patriarchal cross in his right hand and an akakia with his left. Rev. COhSTAhT' ЄVdoSIA ∗ Crowned facing busts of Constantine, wearing a chlamys and holding a globus cruciger in his right hand, on the left, and Eudocia, wearing a loros and holding a cruciform scepter with her left hand, on the right; between them, cross above a pellet. DOC 3.4 (same dies). Füeg 2.1. SB 1703. Extremely rare, with ЄVdoSIA rather than ЄVdoCIA on the reverse. Clear and well-struck. With flan faults and deliberate damages on the obverse (an attempted damnatio?), and some striking flatness, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From the Bollen Collection of Byzantine Coins, ex Bank Leu 50, 25 April 1990, 413.

When this coin appeared in Bank Leu 50 the cataloguer, the late Silvia Hurter, confidently dated it to 882, the year of Eudocia's death. She thought it was a memorial issue, not only for her but for Basil I's eldest son Constantine, who had died in 879. Füeg, however, using stylistic parallels, made a better case for it having been struck to honor Constantine's elevation to the throne as co-emperor, in 867-868.

Ex NGC cert 6707146-042, graded AU 5/5, 2/5.