Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1638. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONSTANTINE IV. 668-685 AD. AV Solidus (4.33 g, 7h). Constantinople mint. Struck 681-685 AD. P CONST A NUS PP A, fine-style helmeted and cuirassed bust facing slightly right, with short beard, holding spear over shoulder and shield; helmet with crest and plume / VICTORA AVGU, cross potent on three steps; A/CONOBA. DOC II 15; MIB III 11; SB 1158. Superb EF, lustrous, slightly clipped. Magnificent example of this artistic Byzantine solidus. ($1500)

P.D. Whitting in Byzantine Coins notes that at the end of the reign of Constantine IV "an engraver of genius has appeared at the mint". For a few years he and his students produced true masterpieces of late Classic imperial portraiture, overshadowing anything that had been produced at the mint over the previous two hundred years. It should be noted, however, that their talents did not extend to literacy; the legends remain a jumble of malformed letters and awkward abbreviations.