428, Lot: 454. Estimate $200. Sold for $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Revolt of the Heraclii. 608-610. Æ Half Follis – 20 Nummi (28.8mm, 6.77 g, 12h). Alexandria mint, 1st officina. Dated IY 14 (610). Facing busts of Heraclius, on left, and his father, the exarch Heraclius, on right, both bareheaded and wearing consular robes; cross above / Large K; cross above, date across field; A. DOC 16 (Alexandretta); MIBE 17; SB 724 (Alexandretta). VF, dark green to black patina with some earthen highlights/deposits. Rare.

Beginning in 608, the exarch of Africa and his son, Heraclius the elder and the younger, began issuing coinage in opposition to that of the Byzantine emperor Phocas. This coinage depicted the Heraclii in consular robes, though neither held the title at that time. Attacks were launched in Egypt and around the Mediterranean and culminated with Heraclius the younger’s coup at Constantinople, where he was crowned and saw to the execution of his predecessor in 610. The Heraclean dynasty would last a century, save for a ten-year interruption, definitively ending with the execution of Justinian II in 711.