Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1099. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $90. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUSTINIAN II. First reign, 685-695 AD. Æ Follis (0.89 g, 6h). Syracuse mint. Crowned facing half-length bust, holding globus cruciger to left / Large M; monogram above, SCL. DOC II 54; Spahr 210; BBS 45; MIB III 65; SB 1295. VF, dark green patina. Probably struck on a piece of decorated scrap metal. ($150)

The weights of Syracusan bronze coins vary widely, necessarily so because they are so often overstruck on earlier coins. A follis of Constans II is known overstruck on a dupondius of Domitian (Spahr 118ter). The present lightweight specimen represents the other extreme; it does not even appear to have been overstruck on a coin, but on a piece of scrap metal. There are traces of punched decoration from the original object, probably a small dish or bowl.