Introduced by Constantine in the 4th century, the Byzantine gold solidus kept its weight and purity for nearly seven hundred years. It was, without exaggeration, the dollar of the Middle Ages.
Accepted from Ravenna to Jerusalem, it financed an empire that survived a thousand years. Its stability was a political statement: as long as the gold held, the Empire stood.
A coin that was an icon
Many solidi show Christ frontally or the cross: the coin was also an object of faith. To wear one today is to hold the economy, politics and religion of a thousand-year empire at once.