Human Figures

Many reverses of the Intermediate and Secondary phases have human figures either singly or in pairs, sitting or standing, and with a variety of attributes. Among the many figures representing Virtues in Roman art and coinage, that of Victory must be counted among the most influential of Roman-inspired reverse coin designs. Quite apart from formal variations, the subtlety with which it could be used as propaganda for military or political achievements facilitated its passage to a more idealized sphere. The move, already effected in stoic circles, where Victory had come to signify abstract philosophical and moral triumphs, culminated with Christianity to symbolize virtuous triumph and ultimate victory over death. Iconographically, in addition to the traditional wreath and palm carried by Victory, still appropriate symbols of triumph for the new ideology, other specifically Christian attributes were added, such as long crosses. The shift from pagan to Christian mirrors a readjustment not only in the meaning, but in the perception of Victory, which, together with other Virtues of pagan times, became an Angel, a personification of the celestial power of God. In the Lombard regal gold coinage (c.690–774), during the reign of Cunincpert (688–700), the traditional Victory transformed into the Archangel St Michael (Fig. 3.1). Anglo-Saxon moneyers would have had many different models of Victory to draw on, not only from Roman examples, numismatic and others, but from Byzantine, Burgundian, Alemannic, Merovingian, Visigothic, and Lombard coins, appealing to Romanitas and with political or religious overtones. It is surprising that more extensive use of it was not made. Indeed, the find of a gold coin on the seashore at Weymouth, with a striding Victory on its reverse, led Stewart to propose that this and another gold coin with a facing Victory, unprovenanced, could represent an early and unrecognized phase of Anglo- Saxon coinage, contemporary to the time when the Victory was used as a reverse on Continental coins, before being replaced by crosses (c.578–82). His suggestion has encountered scepticism, mainly because an English origin is debatable for both.