Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1620. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

JUSTINIAN I. 527-565 AD. Æ Follis (8.21 g, 6h). Salona mint. Struck 541-552 AD? DN IVSTINI ANVS PP, diademed, helmeted, and cuirassed facing bust, holding globus cruciger and shield; cross in right field / Large M; cross above. DOC I 358; E-C 114; MIBE 2482; Grierson, Byzantine Coins p. 74; SB 329. Good VF, dark green patina with splashes of brick-red, some smoothing. One of the finest examples known. ($1000)

The correct attribution of this unsigned series of bronzes remains uncertain, but numerous examples have been found in the environs of Salona in Illyria, an important Byzantine fort and staging area for military activity in south Italy. Both Belisarius and Narses used it as a headquarters in their campaigns against the Ostrogothic king Baduila (Totila, 541-552) who conducted a brilliant guerrilla campaign against superior Imperial forces until his death at Busta Gallorum in 552. There is some debate about the date of striking of the facing bust types of this mint. Grierson supports a date in the 540's-550's, at the height of the Italian war, while Hahn in MIB had dated it 552-565, and in the revised MIBE even later to 562-565, based on similar styles of bust found on dated Ravenna mint issues from late in Justinian's reign. However, it could be argued that the engravers working at Salona simply transfered to Ravenna after the conclusion of the war. In any case, the reduced size, simplified design and real scarcity of the Salona bronzes speaks of a short-lived issue of limited circulation. Salona continued to strike a small number of half folles, some specimens being known in the name of Justin II.