Extremely Rare Variety

289, Lot: 445. Estimate $300. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Phocas. 602-610. Æ Follis (31mm, 13.30 g, 6h). Nicomedia mint. Dated RY 3 (604/5). Crowned facing bust wearing consular robes, holding mappa and eagle-tipped scepter; crown with trefoil decoration / Large XXXX, date above and to right; NIKOB. DOC -; MIBE V69a = CNG 63, lot 1624 (same dies); SB -; CNR 18/3, p. 6 (same dies). Good VF, attractive greenish-brown patina. Extremely rare bust variety – perhaps only the fourth known for this year.

Hahn (MIBE) cites only four coins with the crown decorated with a trefoil rather than a cross: three for regnal year 3 (Zulawski Collection; CNG 63, lot 1624; CNR 18/3, p. 6) and one for regnal year 4 (CNG 63, lot 1625).