Sale: Triton V, Lot: 2269. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MAURICE TIBERIUS. 582-602 AD. AV Solidus (4.47 gm). Struck indictional year 14 (=595/596 AD). Carthage mint. D N mAVRI-C T P P AN IÐ, helmeted facing bust, holding globus cruciger / VICTORI-A AVGG, angel standing facing, holding long P-headed cross and globus cruciger; IÐ/CONOB. DOC I 228; MIB II 25b; BN 10; SB 549. EF. ($600)

From the Jürgen K. Schmidt Collection. Ex Monetarium List (December 1995), no. 66.

The indiction was originally an imperial tax in kind imposed over a specified time period. By order of Constantine I in 312 AD this became a standard 15 year cycle, essentially of fiscal years starting in September, and thus frequently was used as a calendar. Justinian's edict of 537 AD required a regnal or indictional year on all documents, and the indictional system was occasionally used on coins in place of regnal years, especially at Carthage and other western mints.