Lead Post Stamp From Byzantine Empire (Id: Byzantine Lead Seals)

Well this one has me stumped, I have not been able to come across any reference to this piece. While it is in the style of coins in the 11th century the inscription does not name a ruler. The obverse depicts Mary and Christ as indicated by MP-OV and IC-XC. The size is small at 5MM so it's not a follis coin. Sorry I wasn't able to help, made Sap has an idea on this one.

This has me stumped as well, absolutley no match in any of my books.

The words you're looking for are "lead seal". These were affixed to a cord that ran through the hole that goes straight through the centre; this cord was tied around a papyrus or parchment document; you had to break the seal in order to read the document.

These aren't really coins, more like an ancient class of exonumia (though still considered "numismatic", since they were made with dies just like coins). They were often used to seal confidential documents being sent from place to place, so rather than being ancient/mediaeval equivalents of postage stamps, they could be considered the equivalent of "registered mail".


Converting what I can read into English-alphabet text, I read "TW KA KLEIWTAS RAPhAS ALUA ?E PARThENOS ? LATTETW NIKEPhOROU". "Parthenos" means "virgin"; I think "tw ka kleiwtas" means "sealed by" and I think many of the remaining words are personal names. That's about the limit of my Greek skills.

Nikephoros, the last name listed on the seal, appears to have been a fairly common name in Byzantine times; there were three Byzantine emperors and one patriarch of Constantinople by that name. I don't know enough about seals to be able to tell you if this Nikephoros is likely to be one known to history.