Benefactor Simon Posted June 1 · Benefactor Benefactor Share Posted June 1 Class A Anonymous follis have variations, over 85 at last official count. Now as for class B I never payed enough attention. My goal in my collection was a cross that was not crooked. As of late I have been reading an article by one of my favorite researchers. Dr. Ortes Zervos. I like his work because he examines the lower denominations, the coins most researchers skip over but obviously important to the every day person who used these coin to survive. This article from 2003 is The Substantive Varieties of Anonymous Folles of Class B. In the article he examines 253 examples from The Corinth Collection, the collection has over 800 examples, but he eliminated the ones that that were in a poor state. He came up with 6 subvarieties. here is his table from the notes. I thought it would be interesting if we could find all 6. In my collection I had 4 examples readable available. This one seems to fall into category B4, the most common. This one seems to be B4 (B) because of large letters but the legend seems off. My other two examples appear to be also B4, Please post your Class B's , lets see if we can find the other 5 categories. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quant.geek Posted June 1 · Member Share Posted June 1 There has been several others that has been added to that list, but of course, I don't have those. Here are a few of the published ones: Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1823; DOC B.1-64; Zervos Type B-2) - Attributed to Romanus III (1028-1034) Obv: IC-XC to right and left of bust of Christ facing with nimbate cross behind head, dot in each limb of nimbus cross, holding book of gospels, a dot in center of dotted square on book Rev: IS-XS ЬAS-ILЄ ЬAS-ILЄ to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps Dim: 27 mm, 8.65 g Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Constantinople (Sear 1823; DOC B.1-64; Zervos Type B-3) - Attributed to Romanus III (1028-1034) Obv: IC-XC to right and left of bust of Christ facing, with cross nimbus having with a central pellet in each arm and in each upper quarter, wearing tunic and himation; right hand raised in blessing in sling of cloak, left hand holds book, with on cover, from beneath Rev: IS-XS ЬAS-ILЄ ЬAS-ILЄ in small letters to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps Dim: 29 mm, 9.32 g 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quant.geek Posted June 1 · Member Share Posted June 1 Byzantine Imitation: Anonymous (ca 11th Century) Æ Follis, Unknown Mint (DOC III Bb; Zervos Bb) Obv: IC to left, XC with pellet above to right; Bust of Christ facing, with cross nimbus having quincunx (⁙) in each arm and pellet in each upper quarter, wearing tunic and himation; right hand raised in blessing in sling of cloak, left hand holds book, with ⁙ on cover, from beneath. Rev: IS-XI IAS-IIЄ IAS-IIЄ to left and right above and below of cross; cross on base and two steps, pellet at each end of upper arms 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerosmyfavorite68 Posted June 1 · Member Share Posted June 1 28mm, no weight given by seller. I guess I have variety b4b? This is interesting information. Thanks for posting the table! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quant.geek Posted June 1 · Member Share Posted June 1 I have the images of the coins from this article. Don't remember where I downloaded it from, but it was from an official site. Here is the plate coin B4b: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severus Alexander Posted June 1 · Supporter Share Posted June 1 I have the ordinary B4 (I don't care to hazard a guess about the letter sizing): But I also have this interesting early Norman imitation from Apulia in Italy, at only 24mm and 1.24g! I assume the Zervos survey isn't meant to include these western coins: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ela126 Posted June 2 · Member Share Posted June 2 I assume this is a B4, Altho the Bible may be poorly struck as it only has 4 of the 5 dots, missing the center dot. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quant.geek Posted June 2 · Member Share Posted June 2 (edited) Been busy with work all day, so trying to squeeze some fun time in between. Here are mine 4a and 4b alongside the Plate Coins from Zervos: Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Attributed to Romanus III (1028-1034 ), Constantinople Mint (Sear 1823; Zervos Type B-4a) Obv: IC-XC to right and left of bust of Christ facing with nimbate cross behind head, square in each limb of nimbus cross, holding book of gospels, a dot in center of dotted square on book Rev: IS-XS BAS-ILE BAS-ILE to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps Byzantine Empire: Æ Anonymous Class B Follis, Attributed to Romanus III (1028-1034 ), Constantinople Mint (Sear 1823; Zervos Type B-4b) Obv: IC-XC to right and left of bust of Christ facing with nimbate cross behind head, square in each limb of nimbus cross, holding book of gospels, a dot in center of dotted square on book Rev: IS-XS BAS-ILE BAS-ILE to left and right above and below cross with dots at the ends, on three steps I already posted the plate coins in the previous post. I found the original source of the plate images. Its at the Corinth Excavations site at: https://corinth.ascsa.net/id/corinth/coin/1928 637 Edited June 2 by quant.geek 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catadc Posted June 2 · Member Share Posted June 2 @Simon @quant.geek We can discuss the B types, but not in this context. As long as the A2s are not named "type Metcalf / Bellinger / Grierson / Cilic A2-x", I do not see the reason to link this guy's name to the B2 types, nor agree with his exclusions, or with the categories he created. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benefactor Simon Posted June 2 · Benefactor Author Benefactor Share Posted June 2 31 minutes ago, catadc said: We can discuss the B types, but not in this context Dr. Zervos did not come up with this, it was originally by K. M. Edwards, in her publication of the Cornith Excavation coins (1920's or 30's). In it she shows the secret marks on Class B and Class D. However, they were found to be so rare that they are rarely mentioned. Grierson thought they were just following the class A series. It was Metcalf that tried to prove these (Class A) were organized mint marks or control marks, it was one of his students that wrote a paper that dismisses that. (A board member shared this link to that paper several years ago, I do not recall who shared it or the author of the paper.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewomack Posted June 2 · Supporter Share Posted June 2 (edited) This Class B that I picked up late last year looks like a common type B-4(a) or B-4(b). I'm not sure how to distinguish large vs. small letters on the reverse, but I'll guess this one likely has the large letters. Romanus III (1028-1034); Constantinople; Æ Anonymous Follis, Class B, Obv: IC to left, XC to right, to bust of Christ, nimbate, facing, holding book of Gospels; Rev: IS XS / BAS ILE / BAS ILE to left and right above and below cross on three steps; 29 mm. 10.2 gm.; Sear 1823 I also appreciate research on the more "common" coin types used by the average person on a daily basis, so thank you for pointing out this article. The paper appears freely available here: https://www.academia.edu/48883274/The_substantive_varieties_of_Anonymous_folles_of_Class_B It isn't very long, either, for those interested. For contrast, Sommer's book "Die Münzen des Byzantinischen Reiches 491 - 1453" (2nd Edition, 2023) lists 5 varieties of Class B (40.4.1 - 40.4.5). They correspond somewhat to this paper, but it doesn't seem to differentiate between reverse letter size. The types in that book seem to correspond to this paper in this way: 40.4.1 to B-3; 40.4.2 to B-4(a) or B-4(b); 40.4.3 seems distinguished mostly by weight and diameter from 40.4.2; 40.4.4 to B-5; 40.4.5 is hard to correlate since the piece pictured shows excessive wear, but the passage for this variety says "Heavily barbarized bust of Christ?" Edited June 2 by ewomack 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexios Posted June 2 · Member Share Posted June 2 This one is going up for auction at the end of June! Romanos III AE Follis Minted: 1028 - 1034 AD, at the Constantinople Mint Weight: 14.97g, Diameter: 29.00mm, Axis: 6H Obverse: ☩ЄMMANOVHΛ/IC - XC, Nimbate bust of Christ facing, square in each limb of cross; wearing pallium and collobium and holding book of Gospels Reverse: IS XS/bASILЄ/bASILЄ, Legend in three lines divided by limbs of cross with dot at each extremity on three-stepped base Exergue: B Provenance: Ex. Anthony DiDonato Collection Reference: SBCV 1823 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quant.geek Posted June 2 · Member Share Posted June 2 6 hours ago, catadc said: @Simon @quant.geek We can discuss the B types, but not in this context. As long as the A2s are not named "type Metcalf / Bellinger / Grierson / Cilic A2-x", I do not see the reason to link this guy's name to the B2 types, nor agree with his exclusions, or with the categories he created. I am not too concerned about the classification but more interested in associating with a published paper that brings things together. Is there a more recent classification, then fine, we move to that. As for his comments, exclusions, etc., that is always subjective. In finance, there has been several great references that I use, but don't agree with the assessment. But, I still point to the original paper... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celator Posted June 6 · Member Share Posted June 6 Possibly B3 Another odd one 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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