Very Rare Jerusalem Follis – A City Besieged

Triton XIV, Lot: 1145. Estimate $3000. Sold for $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Heraclius. 610-641. Æ Follis (32mm, 13.91 g, 6h). Jerusalem mint. Dated RY 4 (613/4). [D n] hЄRAC [PP AVG], crowned bust facing, wearing consular robes and holding mappa in right hand and eagle-tipped scepter in left; crown with trefoil central ornament / Large M; cross above, A/N/N/O I[I]/II (date) across field; IЄPOC[OS] (S retrograde). DOC -; Bendall, Jerusalem 1 = MIB pl. 14, X27 (same obv. die as coin illustrated); SB 852B (same obv. die as coin illustrated). VF for issue, dark brown surfaces. Very rare.

A very rare issue consisting of only a handful of known examples, the Jerusalem mint folles of Heraclius represent the sole Byzantine coinage bearing a mintmark indicative of that holy city. Extant in two reverse varieties (bearing the mintmarks IЄPOCO[S retrograde] and XCNIKA), the obverse depicts a hybrid bust type, clearly copied from the earlier Antiochene folles of Phocas, but with the crown of Maurice Tiberius. Both varieties being dated to Heraclius' fourth regnal year points toward a production somewhere between late September 613 and early October 614. The bellicose environment surrounding Jerusalem, however, points toward a more specific timeframe – namely during the seige of the city by the Persians who ultimately caused its fall sometime in May 614 after a seige of about a month. The chronology of the two reverse types can be seen from a growing die flaw in an obverse die used for both types, therefore placing the IЄPOCO[S retrograde] mintmark – emblematic of the city of origin – before the XCNIKA – conveying the besieged celator's last minute hopes of a deliverance from their Lord: X(ριστο)ϲ Nικα (Christ conquers). As the city, along with the whole of Egypt, was doomed to fall into the hands of the Persians, the plea initially went unanswered. During the second half of 629, however, the Byzantine military under Heraclius was able to force a Persian withdrawal from Egypt and Jerusalem, and ultimately returning the Holy Cross on 21 March 630, effectively answering the prayers of 16 years prior. For more information regarding the Byzantine coinage at the mint of Jerusalem, see S. Bendall, “The Byzantine coinage of the mint of Jerusalem,” RN 159 (2003), pp. 307-22.