CNG 100, Lot: 388. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LOMBARDS, Tuscany. Pseudo-Imperial coinage. AV Tremissis (13mm, 1.39 g, 1h). VИVI-•IΛ•, stylized, diademed bust right; R before / ИIONVΛVИIOИ, cross potent; ΛNΛ. Cf. Bernareggi, Moneta 16 (for type); BMC Vandals –; MEC 1, –. Good VF, toned. Possibly unpublished with R before the bust.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Virgil Brand Collection (Part 1, Sotheby’s, 1 July 1982), lot 94.

As the Tuscan tremisses become thicker and more compact, their legends become meaningless.

Wroth (BMC p. 135) gives this and the two previous lots to the second reign of Perctarit (672-688). Only the letters and symbols B, retrograde S, <, and * are noted before the bust.