CNG 100, Lot: 394. Estimate $1500. Sold for $2700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LOMBARDS, Lombardy & Tuscany. Liutprand. 712-744. AV Tremissis (23mm, 1.31 g, 1h). D N LIV-TPRΛ(NRX), diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right; hand before / SCS M-HΛHIL (S’s retrograde), St. Michael standing left, holding long cross and round shield. Bernareggi 70; BMC Vandals –; MEC 1, –. Superb EF, lustrous. Rare symbol.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (20 April 1985), lot 788.

The hand, in place of letters, appears on some of the tremisses of Cunincpert, Aripert II, and Liutprand. It has been suggested, somewhat fancifully, that the symbol was placed on the coins as a reminder to forgers of the penalty they would incur for violating Rothari’s Edict of 643 (“He who stamps gold or mints coin without the king’s command shall have his hand cut off”). The traditional view is that it serves as a mint or mintmaster’s mark, as the letters surely do. Another possibility is that it represents the manus Dei, although its position before the portrait rather than above would be peculiar.