Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1627. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HERACLIUS. 610-641 AD. Æ Follis (11.45 g, 6h). Jerusalem mint. Dated IY 4 (630/1 AD). dN HERAC LS PP AVG, crowned facing bust, wearing consular robes and holding mappa and eagle-tipped sceptre; crown with trefoil central ornament / Large M; cross above, ANNO II/II acros field; IEPOCOS (S retrograde). DOC II -; Bendall, Jerusalem 1; MIB III X27; SB 852B. VF for type, small dent in field, usual weak strike, dark green-brown patina. Extremely rare. ($3000)

The Jerusalem folles, identified by their mintmarks IEPOCOS (Jerusalem) and IC NIKA (Christ Conquers), are among the most historic Byzantine bronze coins. They have traditionally been attributed, per the date and imperial portrait, as siege pieces struck at Jerusalem in 614 AD, when the Persian general Sharhrbaraz invested the city, overwhelmed its defenders, and carried the Patriarch and the True Cross as trophies back to Persia. The loss was a shocking blow to the Christian west. However, it is uncertain that this crisis was the occasion for the striking of these folles, as there are a number of problems with this attribution. First, the siege of Jerusalem lasted only twenty days, and it is unlikely that coin dies would have been prepared and coins struck in such a short amount of time, nor is there any appreciable reason to strike a local coinage in the period leading up to the siege, which at the time was probably regarded as merely another facet in the long drawn-out struggle between Rome and Persia. Second, the justification for dating the coins this early in Heraclius' reign is the portrait, which has been identified as the type used in the first four years of his reign. However, the portrait is not that of Heraclius, but rather a generic depiction of an emperor adapted from the Antioch mint portraits of Maurice Tiberius -- the only place where the trefoil crown ornament appears. Antioch folles of Maurice were ubiquitous in Syria-Palestine in the seventh century, a mainstay of the economy, and would have been familiar to anyone in Jerusalem. The final problem with this attribution is that the whole concept of a "siege coinage" was alien to the classical world. Among the few likely contenders might be the base tetradrachms of Uranius Antoninus at Emesa in the third century AD and the plated tetradrachms of Athens of circa 406-404 BC.

A re-analysis of the historical and numismatic evidence reveals a more likely attribution: the Return of the True Cross. The loss of the True Cross was an epochal event in the early Christian world, and its recovery by Heraclius combined with an overwhelming victory over the Persians in 628 AD was seen as the direct work of divine intervention. The emperor himself led the procession returning the Cross to the Holy Sepulchre, an event that was celebrated with impassioned displays of joy throughout Jerusalem. The exact date of the return is uncertain, but the two most likely are March 630 or March 631. These dates relatively comport with Heraclius' fourth indictional year, 630/1 AD. Thus, the date on these folles is not a regnal year, but an Indictional year, which serves to de-emphasize the role of the emperor. A similar use of an Indictional year is seen in the Heraclius Revolt folles struck at Alexandretta in Syria. In keeping with the divine nature of the event, then, the emphasis of the folles is on the heavenly victory rather than the emperor. This is also reinforced by the generic imperial portrait that was used and the mintmark "Christ Conquers" - not a plea for aid, but an acclamation of the Christian God's ultimate victory. The coins were a token of a great Christian victory, not a defeat.

The total number of known specimens is miniscule, probably fewer than a dozen, and all are poorly preserved. All of the published examples are struck from the same obverse die, but more recently a few have appeared that are struck from a second die. The present piece is only the third known from this new obverse die (the other two reside in a private collection in the US and in a small local museum in Israel). ublic offerings of any of these folles are rare, the known examples being: MIB III X271) Sternberg XXXV (28-29 October 2000), lot 9682) Classical Numismatic Group XIX [19 February 1992], lot 3363) Sternberg XIII [17-18 November 1983], lot 1111)MIB III X28 4) Berk-England Byzantine Coins Auction (7 December 1989), lot 1405) Bonham's 6 [14-15 September 1981], lot 616 6) A. Cahn 47 [17 May 1922], lot 1273).