Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1088. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANS II. 641-668 AD. Æ Half Follis (2.47 g, 6h). Syracuse mint. Dated IY 7 (648/9 AD). Crowned facing bust, with short beard, holding globus cruciger; S. to right / Large K forming monogram; date across field. DOC II 182b; Spahr 119; Tolstoi 137, BBS 30; MIB III 211; SB 1112. Good VF, dark green patina. Overstruck on uncertain follis. ($150)

There is another variety of this coin, described in DOC 182a; BBS 29 and SB 1111 has having a slight beard as opposed to a short beard. This is, honestly, not very helpful. There are more significant differences. The portrait on SB 1111 is tall and narrow, possibly even beardless, with sketchy drapery, and the star in the field is of the form ]. SB 1112 is short, definitely bearded, with heavy drapery, and the star is S. The differences are even greater than those between the portraits on the undated folles, SB 1104-1106, which Hahn in MIB uses as a marker for two distinct issues, with the break in 647 AD. The radically different portraits on these indictionally dated half folles of 648/9 suggests this change came a year later than in Hahn's chronology, and was found on both denominations.