Long Cross Coin Ring

One of the most sacred relics of the Christian church was the Holy Cross which for much of its history was kept safely in Jerusalem. But early in the 7th Century AD, the relic was taken as booty by a Persian army which sacked the city. The recovery of the Holy Cross was no easy task, but with great persistence and skill the emperor Heraclius led an army which not only reclaimed the cross, but also destroyed the Sassanian Kingdom, whose soldiers had been powerful enough to wrest it from Jerusalem only a generation earlier.

Heraclius celebrated his miraculous deed by placing on the back of his gold coins the image of a long cross set upon a three-step base with an accompanying inscription that declared ‘Victory to the Emperors.’ His immediate successor, Constans II, who struck this beautiful gold Solidus, continued this practice and the long cross became the standard design for the gold coinage of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire.