Bust of Zeno facing right, DN ZENO REG VG ("first "G" retrograde) / CONCORDIA, Zeno standing, long cross in his hand, holding a globe, captive at his feet. Very rare, high quality. 17mm, 3.88 grams. RIC 948.

The first known coin with the complete obverse inscription. REG probably stands for "rex" or "Regis", with the "VG" the last part of "AVG". Extremely rare and high quality!

These AE2s bear the mintmark of Constantinople, but were possibly struck in Cherson. They are much rarer than the AE2's of Leo, and are usually somewhat smaller (although, one of the 15 specimens sold below weighs 6.1g, which is heavier than any Leo's AE2 we have ever handled). The creators of RIC had only 1 example to examine, although a number of other is known to exist. Their example was tooled and the obverse and reverse inscriptions were somewhat ambiguous. A lot of the coins we offer are much clearer than the RIC specimen, and offer new insights into the mysterious reverse inscription - it was speculated that CONCORDIA reverse has to be followed by a some sorts of an abbreviation - a number of our specimens definitively show that "CONCORDIA" is not followed by anything. The abbreviated form of "CONCORDIA" was not known, but clearly shows on two of our coins. Also, we are offering a number of new obverse inscription types, and a beautiful reverse type with Zeno wearing a cloak were previously not known.