But was the "star and crescent" the symbol of the City of Constantine?
It would appear not.

Ancient Byzantium was, as stated in a previous chapter, considered,
long before our era and right up to the days of Constantine, as
dedicated to the Virgin Queen of Heaven; whose symbol was a crescent.
And when Constantine rebuilt and renamed Byzantium, he dedicated New
Rome--or, as we now call it, Constantinople--to the Virgin Mother of
God and Queen of Heaven; whose symbol, as can be seen upon reference to
both ancient and modern representations of the Virgin Mary, is also a
crescent. It would therefore appear that the symbol of the city is more
likely to have been a simple crescent than the so-called _star_ and
crescent. Such a conclusion is entirely borne out by the evidence. For
though the so-called star and crescent can be seen upon three or four
coins struck at Byzantium before such a place as New Rome was thought
of, this proves little if anything; inasmuch as the symbol in question
was a very common one in days of old, and occurs frequently upon coins
struck elsewhere.

Moreover the question is what the symbol of Constantinople was at the
time it was captured by the Turks. And an inspection of the coins
issued by the Christian rulers of that city during the thousand years
and more it was in their hands, will reveal to the enquirer that though
the crescent with a _cross_ within its horns appears occasionally upon
the coins of the Emperors of the East, and in one or two instances we
see a cross of four equal arms with each extremity piercing a crescent,
it is doubtful if a single example of the so-called "_star_ and
crescent" symbol can be found upon them.

We learn from other sources also that the symbol of the imperial