Freeman & Sear - Gemini I, Session 2, Lot: 506

ROMAN EMPIRE. Theophilus and Constantine (AD 829-842). 
      Gold semissis (1.75 gm). Syracuse, 5 June AD 830-831. 
      QEO-FILOS CE, bust facing of Theophilus with short 
      beard, wearing crown and chlamys, holding patriarchal 
      cross on globus in right hand / Coh-STAhTI, facing bust 
      of Constantine with small childlike face, wearing crown 
      and chlamys, holding cross on globe in right hand, 
      pellet on either side of cross. BN 5. DO 22. Sear 1672. 
      Extremely rare: only three recorded specimens. 

      The image of Constantine the Infant, son of Theophilus, 
      is the rarest portrait of the Byzantine series. Its 
      rarity has been obscured by a misleading footnote in 
      Sear. Until the 1960s neither DO nor the BN owned an 
      example of this issue, and the specimens they then 
      acquired both came from the same hoard which otherwise 
      only contained coins of Theophilus of Syracuse. 

...Sold for $10,500 USD [ approx 7980 EUR, 5565 GBP ] 

Gemini I Auction Closed Jan 11-12, 2005. 

Re-used by permission of Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com) 
    and Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com).