Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1381. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANS II, with Constantine IV. 641-668 AD. AV Solidus (4.3 gm, 7h). Carthage mint. Struck 653-668 AD. ...TIA..., facing busts of Constans, with long beard, and Constantine, both wearing crown and chlamys / TICTO A PI, cross potent on three steps; CONOB. DOC II 118; MIB III 66; SB 1039. EF. ($1000)

Although the Carthage solidi of Constans are typically poorly engraved with fragmentary legends, this piece is much more devolved than usual. It is possibly a later imitation, perhaps even struck at the time of the first Arab incursions into north Africa at the end of the seventh century.