225, Lot: 631. Estimate $100. Sold for $145. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Local imitation. 7th century. Æ Follis (25mm, 5.56 g, 4h). Crowned facing bust, holding globus cruciger; crescent and star flanking head, S to right / Large M; cross above, A/N N/N across fields, crescent below. Cf. BN 13/X/Æ/01. VF, dark green patina under a thick layer of earthen deposits.

This and the previous lot are highly unusual coins with obverses that recall 12 nummi struck during the Persian occupation of Alexandria (itself an enigmatic issue; for a thorough discussion, see L. Domaszewicz and M. Bates, “Copper coinage of Egypt in the Seventh Century”, in Fustat Finds). Likely of Levantine origin, they do not fit neatly into other imitative series. The closely related specimen in the Bibliothèque Nationale has the crescent and star reversed on the obverse and on the reverse the M is flanked by A/N/Λ - A/X. That specimen, of similar fabric, carries the mark of the first “officina” of Constantinople.