Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1619. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MAURICE TIBERIUS. 582-602 AD. AV Solidus (4.30 gm). Carthage. Indictional year 1 (597/8 AD). Helmeted and cuirassed facing bust, holding globus cruciger / Angel holding long P-headed cross and globus cruciger; A/CONOB. DOC I 230; SB 549. Good VF, coppery toning, clipped. ($500)

The indiction was originally an imperial tax in kind imposed over a specified time period. By order of Constantine I in 312 AD this became a standard 15 year cycle, essentially of fiscal years starting in September, and thus frequently was used as a calendar. Justinian's edict of 537 AD required a regnal or indictional year on all documents, and the indictional system was occasionally used on coins in place of regnal years, especially at Carthage and other western mints.