Constantine VI & Irene, 780-797. Solidus (Gold, 19 mm, 4.47 g, 7 h), Constantinople, 787-790. + COnSTAnTInOS CA SIΔ' Crowned facing busts of Constantine VI, beardless and smaller, on the left, wearing chlalmys, and Irene, larger and on the right, wearing loros and holding cross-tipped scepter; between their heads, cross and pellet. Rev. S InIRI AVΓ'AV MITRA' Figures of Constantine V, Leo III and Leo IV seated facing, all crowned and wearing chlamys. DOC -. Füeg C.2/Ir.2. SB 1592. Very fine.
From the Trausnitz Collection, acquired prior to 2007.

Constantine VI was the son of Leo IV and Irene Sarantapechaina - Irene of Athens - the daughter of an important Greek family (there is a Sarantapichou street in Athens today). He was just a child when he came to the throne under his mother’s tutelage (born in 771, he had been crowned co-emperor in 776). He turned into a vacillating and cruel emperor after he had finally managed to oust his mother from the regency in 790. He faced a number of revolts, including one by his uncle, which he suppressed with great cruelty. Finally Irene managed to return and depose him in 797; he was blinded with such ferocity that he died shortly thereafter. This early solidus shows him and his mother as equals.