The Bust

One of the most enduring legacies of Roman coinage is that of busts on coins. No matter how debased the image might appear to be, the appeal of classical prototypes is evident. Though Rome cannot claim to have introduced portraiture to coinage, it used it extensively to put forward political propaganda. On Roman coins portraiture passed from renderings of great realism to mystically idealized anonymous representations influenced by Hellenistic fashion, that is from standard profiles of Western type to three-quarter or frontal portraits of Oriental inspiration. With the advent of Christianity and the absorption of Greek abstract ideas of kingship and authority, models became more stylized with greater emphasis put on the symbols of authority rather than the physiognomy of the king. As Donald Bullough points out, it is now very difficult to appreciate the full impact that these images, whether ‘representations or presentations’, would have had on the people, because we see the coins in isolation, divorced from all the reinforcing ritualizing propaganda of the Imperial machinery. The perceived effectiveness of the imagery is evident from the close adherence to the convention of portraiture on the independent coinage of the Barbarian states. Portraits, whilst retaining their charismatic importance on coins, and many of the features of Roman prototypes, such as the positioning of the bust, headgear, and attributes, were flexible enough to accommodate different tastes and traditions, as well as artistic experiments and subtly changing propaganda messages. It is the variety of Anglo-Saxon responses that will be examined in the following sections, because these peculiarities are particularly valuable, as they allow us glimpses into ‘native’ customs and taste, and alternative sources of inspiration. Among these, for instance, are bearded portraits. Anglo-Saxon coins on the whole show clean-shaven faces, but those with beards are independent from Roman coins portraying curly-bearded emperors. The types of beards reproduced might mirror local fashions, or make a particular statement. One might wonder if the striking arrangement of the runes spelling the end of the name of the moneyer Tilbeorht on the East Anglian coins of Series R, recalling a throat beard under the chin, as seen on the Undley bracteate and the Sutton Hoo whetstone, may be a conscious archaism.