Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, with Romanus II, 913-959. Solidus (Gold, 20.5 mm, 4.26 g, 6 h), Constantinople, 959. +IhS XPS REX REGNANTIЧm' Facing bust of Christ Pantocrator, wearing tunic, himation and a cross nimbus with three pellets in the arms, raising right hand in benediction and holding Gospel book in his left. Rev. COnSTAnT'S CЄ ROmAn' AЧGG b Crowned facing busts of Constantine, bearded and wearing loros on the left, and Romanus, beardless and wearing chlamys on the right; both holding, between them with their right hands, a long patriarchal cross. DOC -. Füeg -. SB - (cf. 1751). Clear and well-centered. Traces of mounting, otherwise, very fine.

It is very interesting that this coin shares the same obverse die as that of the extremely rare solidus of Romanus II (DOC 2) struck during his sole reign (959 - 963). The only example of the four known pieces of this type not in a museum appeared as lot 1001 of NAC 92 in 2016: estimated at 40,000 it sold for a solid CHF 100,000. In fact we can tell that our coin was struck prior to the NAC piece, as the die break on the left side of Christ head is definitely larger on the NAC coin. Our coin holds a huge academic and historical importance as it is the last joint issue of Constantine VII with his son Romanus II, just prior to the senior emperor's death and the accession to the throne of Romanus as sole ruler. Thus, the issuance of DOC 2 must have occurred within days or weeks of the minting of the present coin. It is certainly possible that this piece could have been struck under Romanus II alone, as a kind of stop-gap issue, but that is quite unlikely since the Byzantines were very punctilious about titles; they would have very much wanted to ensure that Romanus was given the full honours to which he was entitled.