Gold Solidus of Constantine V and Leo IV, 4.47 g.
Title
Gold Solidus of Constantine V and Leo IV, 4.47 g.
Creator
Constantine V, Leo IV
Date
751-775 CE
Description
Obverse: Facing busts of Constantine V on left and Leo IV on right, each wearing chlamys and crown with cross; pellet between heads, cross above; CONSTANTINOS S LEON O NEOS: Constantine and Leo junior.
Reverse: Facing bust of Leo III, wearing loros and crown with cross and holding cross potent on base in right hand; D(OMINVS) LEON P(ERPETVVS) A(VGVSTVS) MVL(TOS ANNOS): Lord Leo, perpetual Augustus, many years.
Style/Period: Byzantine
The coinage of Constantine V and his immediate successors was characterized by types proclaiming the continuity of their dynasty, the Isaurian, which lasted until the end of the century. Constantine had been co-emperor with his father Leo III until he was made sole emperor upon Leo's death in 741 CE. Ten years later he made his own son, Leo IV, co-emperor. In Constantine's late coinage the entire family is depicted, with the co-emperors on the obverse and the founder of their dynasty on the reverse. The heads are almost identical, with the exception of Leo IV's clean-shaven face, and the conventions of rank obscure even their most well-known features; over the objections of the Church, Constantine wore no beard, but he is depicted with a beard on the coin to indicate his seniority.
Constantine's father, Leo III, had forbidden the veneration of icons, which had become widespread in the East, and this began an internal struggle between the iconoclasts, or destroyers of icons, and the iconodules, or worshipers of icons, which lasted for over a century. The controversy reached its height in the reign of Constantine V with the violent destruction of religious images and the persecution of those who favored them. Secular images replaced religious images, and the cross on the steps was replaced by imperial portraits.
-- Rebecca K. Browning Wojcik, LU '93
Bibliography: P. Grierson, Byzantine Coins (London 1982).
Constantine's father, Leo III, had forbidden the veneration of icons, which had become widespread in the East, and this began an internal struggle between the iconoclasts, or destroyers of icons, and the iconodules, or worshipers of icons, which lasted for over a century. The controversy reached its height in the reign of Constantine V with the violent destruction of religious images and the persecution of those who favored them. Secular images replaced religious images, and the cross on the steps was replaced by imperial portraits.
-- Rebecca K. Browning Wojcik, LU '93
Bibliography: P. Grierson, Byzantine Coins (London 1982).
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Purchased from Hesperia Art, Feb. 9, 1959.
Identifier
91.282
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Byzantine, Constantine V, Leo IV, chlamys, crown, pellet, cross, Leo III, loros, cross potent
Files
Citation
Constantine V, Leo IV, “Gold Solidus of Constantine V and Leo IV, 4.47 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/329.