Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1189. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARAB-BYZANTINE. Imitating Heraclius. Circa 685-710 AD. AV Solidus (4.36 gm). North African mint. NON EST dS NIS IPSE SOL C ET NON ABEH, crowned facing busts, as of Heraclius and his son Heraclius Constantine / dEd NCIPIA SOAC...NOANC:SC, transformed cross (globe) on steps. Apparently unpublished as a full solidus with the globe cross, but cf. Walker, Arab-Byzantine, pg. 55, HSA.1 for legends on a similar solidus, and pg. 55, 144 for the type as a semissis. Near EF, possibly the only known example. (See color enlargement on plate 19.) ($10,000) 

Ex Dreesmann Collection, Part I (Spink, 13 April 2000), lot 1846; purchased from J. Schulman, 14 November 1967. 

The Arab-Byzantine coinage of Syria-Palestine and North Africa illuminate a true watershed in world history, when the classical, Christianized western society was supplanted by a completely novel culture, that of the Muslim Arabs. For all its importance, the coinage is still notable for the glaring gaps in our knowledge. Most notably, our understanding of the chronology is still subject to great debate. For the gold dinars struck at Damascus we have a firm date for the start of the standing Caliph type, the earleist dated AH 74 (693/4 AD). For North Africa we have a bronze fals with transformed cross on steps, similar to the above solidus, dated AH 80 (699/700 AD). Many scholars have assumed the undated gold types to be near contemporaries to the dated issues, i.e. circa 700 AD. However, the earliest reference to an Arab gold coinage is related to events of 688 AD, when Justinian II and 'Abd al-Malik signed a truce agreement, ceding territory to the Arabs upon a weekly payment of 1000 solidi, one horse and one slave. Theophanes the Confessor asserts that a few years later Justinian objected to al-Malik's new coinage, and his supposed response was the introduction of the Christ portrait solidus. This would suggest that Islamic style gold coinage was introduced before 692 AD. However, scholars have asserted that Theophanes' account is an anachronism, actually refering to the introduction of orthodox Islamic dinars at the end of the 7th century AD. The debate revolves around when the Arabs would have developed the required infrastructure and economy to support a distinctive gold coinage. At a very early period they had the services of officials trained in Byzantine administration (hence the Islamic kalima translated into Latin), and by the 670's had established an empire stretching from North Africa to India. By the beginning of the reign of Justinian II all the elements would have been in place to support a new gold currency. All that is needed is a secure date derived from archaeological discoveries.