Extremely Rare Minimus

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 1570. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Justin II(?). 565-578. Æ Minimus (0.63 g, 1h). Carthage mint. Facing bust / Large slant-bar A or monogram; stars flanking and below. Cf. W.R.O. Hahn, “A Sixth-Century Hoard of Byzantine Small Change from Egypt, and its Contribution to the Classification of African Minimi” in NC 1980, 224-6 and 251; otherwise unpublished. VF, dark green-brown patina. Extremely rare.

A minimus with these types, but without the stars on the reverse, first appeared in the hoard studied by Hahn (see above), item number 251. Only a trace of the legend remained on that example, and Hahn could not find a compelling reason to attribute it to a particular ruler. The present example, however, has the same types, but adds the three stars to the reverse, paralleling issues he attributed to Justin II (hoard item numbers 227-32 [=MIB 213]).