148, Lot: 444. Estimate $100. Sold for $111. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Theophilus. 829-842. Æ Follis (26mm, 7.43 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 830/1-842. Half-length facing figure of Theophilus, wearing loros and crowned with tufa decorated with pellets, holding labarum and globus cruciger / Legend in four lines. DOC III 15 var (crown decoration); SB 1667. Near EF, dark brown, slightly rough surfaces.

From the Robert Kutcher Collection.

The wide variations in style in the folles of Theophilus have lead to numerous attempts at assigning them to different provincial mints. No consensus has been arrived at as of yet. This coin has a small detail not noted in other published examples; the tufa (a fan-shaped ornament) is attached to the crown by a small circlet. This variation (circlet vs. no circlet) also appears on the folles of Michael II and Theophilus.