March 2001 Coin of the Month

As you may have noticed from the quantity of various coin themes within my collection, I find Joint Reign coinage especially intriging.  Joint Reigns are generally represented by coins that are both interesting from a stylistic view and also rare due to the the limited periods that they were produced.  (The joint reign of Justin II/Tiberius II was only 9 days!)

Therefore, here is another example, a solidius of the short joint reign (10 months) of six-year old Leo II and his father, Zeno.   Leo II was proclaimed Augustus in January 474 upon the death of his grandfather, Leo I.  Due to his young age it was decided that he "needed" a co-emperor (rather than a regent) to look after the affairs of the empire.  His father, Zeno, was "chosen" for this position.  Of course, it was not long before Leo II died (natural causes, of course) and Zeno became the sole emperor on November 17(?), 474.

Due to the limited time period and trouble within the Empire, the quantity of gold coinage that was produced at this time was severly limited.  While these pieces are not as rare as the joint reign of Justin II/Tiberius II, they are quite scarce with maybe 50 to 75 pieces known.  This piece is one of the more exceptional, with polished surfaces, fresh dies and extremely well struck/centered dies.  This piece weighs 4.51 grams and is distinguishable by the small flan flaw at 6 o'clock on the obverse rim.  The references are RIC-X-803 (R2?), MIBR-1b, and Berk 17 (this coin).