Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1106. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $2400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANTINE IV, Pogonatus, with HERACLIUS and TIBERIUS. 668-685 AD. Æ Follis (19.56 gm). Constantinople mint. Struck 668-673 AD. DN CONSTAN TINUS P AU, beardless facing bust of Constantine IV, wearing helmet and cuirass, holding globus cruciger / Large M flanked by Heraclius and Tiberius, each beardless, standing facing, wearing crown and chlamys, holding globus cruciger; D/CON. DOC II 28d; MIB III 77; SB 1173. EF, strong strike, smooth brown patina. Among the finest known examples of this rare and popular type. ($2000)

The dawn of the reign of Constantine IV saw the beginning of a brave attempt at coinage reform. Under the reign of his father, Constans II, the ubiquitous bronze follis had decayed into one of the most wretched coinages ever inflicted on a people. Constantine revalued the follis, making it fully equivalent to its ancestor—the first large bronze coin issued under Anastasius I almost two hundred years earlier. Constantine was able to maintain this heavy standard throughout his seventeen year reign, but the succession of Justinian II in 685 saw the immediate revocation of this reform, and the return of the reduced follis.