In August 2018 I started a thread https://www.cointalk.com/threads/byzantine-anonymous-folles.322682/ announcing my web site on Byzantine anonymous folles http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ByzAnon/ The many responses helped me improve it. Today I got in the mail a nice ("for type") Class F which I will add to the site. I got it on eBay. It cost under $15, including shipping, perhaps because it was not identified as the scarcer "Class F". 28 mm. 7.58 grams. Christ seated on throne without back, raising right hand in benediction IS XS (Jesus Christus) bASILE (King of) bASIL (Kings) Sear Byzantine 1856, struck under Constantine X, 1059-1067. Show us some recent Byzantine acquisitions!
Nice one, Valentinian. Here's a countermark issue for Heraclius that I picked up - also on eBay. Rather to my surprise, it shipped from Israel, but since that is the area these supposedly circulated, I suppose that's a good thing. My host coin attribution is a bit of a guess. I think it is a bit unusual for these to be countermarked on the obverse - most I've seen have been on the M-side: Heraclius (c. 633-636 A.D.) cm on Tib. II Con. (578-582 A.D.) Nikomedia / Palestine Mint Host coin: DM T[Ib CONSTANTS PP], crowned facing bust cruciger & shield / M, ANNO left, cross above, [date] right, B below; NIK[O] in exergue. SB 440, DOC 27b. (?) (11.86 grams / 31 x 27 mm) Countermark: HRC cruciform monogram in 9 mm circle. Schulze HCM type 1b "Heraclian countermarks on Byzantine copper coins in seventh-century Syria" by Wolfgang Schulze, Ingrid Schulze and Wolfgang Leimenstoll - "During the military conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Arabs in Syria in the years 633-36 Byzantine coins were countermarked by the Byzantine military with a Heraclius monogram. Countermarking most probably was exercised predominantly in Palestine I and was carried out to revalue the few circulating copper coins in order to remedy the general supply gap and disastrous shortage of cash." Quoted from a FORVM listing.
A relatively recent Leu auction fetched crazily low prices on Byzantine silver, so I came away with three. The first I've shown before, but I don't think I've shown the other two. The first is one of three known half-miliaresia (or 1/3 miliaresia) of Leo III: Dumbarton Oaks #23 and Sear 1512A. It weights only 0.76g. Plus I have been wanting a non-anonymous coin of Romanus IV of Manzikert fame, and ended up with two, a 2/3 miliaresion and a 1/3 with a portrait: Both holed... perhaps charms used by a resident of Anatolia desperate to ward off the Turkish invaders?
