Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1658. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LEO III, the Isaurian. 717-741 AD. AR Hexagram (2.38 gm, 6h). Constantinople mint. Sole reign, 717-720 AD. dNO [LE]O N PA MUL, helmeted and cuirassed facing bust, holding spear over shoulder and shield / VICTORIA AVSU, cross potent on three steps; H/CONOB. Yannopoulos -; DOC III 20; MIB III 23; SB 1511. VF, toned and porous.($1000)

Yannopoulos does not even comment on the silver ceremonial coinage of Leo III in his study of the hexagram. The size and weight of these silver pieces no longer have any relationship to the hexagram standard, and are simply off-metal strikes from solidus dies. Reverses of officinae D, E and now H are known, so the selection of reverse dies appears to have been random. Curiously, the obverse bust type on SB 1511 is not known for a solidus of Leo, but is copied from the portraits of Constantine IV. SB 1510 features the normal crowned bust type of Leo III.