Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1309. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUSTINIAN I. 527-565 AD. AV Half Tremissis (0.79 gm, 6h). Constantinople mint. D N IVSTINI ANVS P P AVG, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / VICTORI AVGVSTORVM, Victoria walking right, holding wreath and globus cruciger; * /CONOB. DOC I -; MIB I -; SB -. Good VF, double struck on a wrinkled flan. One of the great rarities of the Byzantine series. ($2000)

From the Malcolm W. Heckman Collection. Ex Kovacs FPL 29 (1997), lot 75.

The half tremisses are another of the great mysteries of Byzantine numismatics. Extremely rare examples are now known for most emperors from Justinian I to Constantine IV, but the reason for striking a fractional denomination using the same designs (apparently the same dies) as the tremissis eludes us.