Sale: CNG 61, Lot: 2175. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 25 September 2002.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUSTINIAN II. First Reign, 685-695. Three-quarter Follis (1.45 gm). Rome mint. Crowned facing bust, holding globus cruciger / XXX; in exergue, ROM. O. Murari, "Monete di trenta nummi dei secoli VII ed VIII della zecca di Roma, Quaderni Ticinesi 6. 1977, pl. 4, 4a; MIB III 77; DOC II 69; SB 1309. EF, good brown patina. ($300)

The most comprehensive study of Rome's three-quarter folles remains that of Murari, op. cit., who noted that there were traces of silver on many of the coins he listed. It is interesting that Prof. Grierson has commented, in view of the specimens found in the Byzantine-Papal hoard, that the low weight combined with a relatively high value suggests that the they may have been intended as a billon rather than a copper coinage. These coins are treated in CNI 15, p. 60, 13-17, as non-imperial issues struck in part by the Senate during the final stage of Byzantine rule, 690-720.