Although DFT calculations have provided a first-order electronic-structural description for Roussin's red and black salts, a detailed study of spin coupling in these species has yet to be reported. Such an analysis is presented here for the first time, based on broken-symmetry density functional theory (DFT, chiefly OLYP/STO-TZP) calculations. Both the Noodleman and Yamaguchi formulas were used to evaluate the Heisenberg coupling constants (J). Three nitrosylated binuclear clusters were studied: [Fe 2 (2), and Roussin's red salt anion [Fe 2 (NO) 4 (μ-S) 2 ] 2− (3). Although the Heisenberg J for 1 is small (≈10 2 cm −1 ), 2 and 3 exhibit J values that are at least an order of magnitude higher (≈ 10 3 cm −1 ), where the J values refer to the following Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian:. For Roussin's black salt anion, [Fe 4 (NO) 7 (μ 3 -S) 3 ] − (4), the Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian describing spin coupling between the {FeNO} 7 unit (S A =3/2) and the three {Fe(NO) 2 } 9 units (S B =S C =S D =1/2) in [Fe 4 (NO) 7 (μ 3 -S) 3 ] − was assumed to have the form:, in which J 12 corresponds to the interaction between the apical iron and a basal iron, and J 22 refers to that between any two basal iron centers. Although the basal-basal coupling constant J 22 was found to be small (≈ 10 2 cm −1 ), the apical-basal coupling constant J 12 is some forty times higher (≈ 4000 cm −1 ). Thus, the nitrosylated iron-sulfur clusters feature some exceptionally high J values relative to the nonnitrosylated {2Fe2S} and {4Fe4S} clusters. An analysis of spin-dependent bonding energies shed light on this curious feature. In essence, the energy difference between the high-spin (i.e., ferromagnetically coupled iron sites) and low-spin (i.e., maximum spin coupling) states of Roussin's salts are indeed rather similar to those of analogous non-nitrosylated iron-sulfur clusters. However, the individual Fe(NO) x (x=1, 2) site spins are lower in the nitrosylated systems, resulting in a smaller denominator in both the Noodleman and Yamaguchi formulas for J, which in turn translates into the very high J values.