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Message:: [QUOTE="Al Kowsky, post: 3295824, member: 97383"]About 17 years ago Jonathan Kern & I worked out a trade deal where I swapped a 1802 (2 over 1) half eagle in EF 45 condition for a Byzantine gold solidus, 2 choice large Byzantine bronze coins & 4 choice Persian silver drachms. I bought the half eagle at a good price from another dealer & had no intention of keeping it. We were both happy with the deal. The gold solidus was a strong strike in mint state from the reign of Heraclius, AD 610 - 641, 4.52 gm, 22 mm, 7 h. The style of the solidus was odd & the mint mark was puzzling. Heraclius is considered one of the greatest emperors in Byzantine history for overthrowing the crude red haired tyrant Phocas, & restoring much of the empire from barbarian incursions. In the year 614 Persian forces sacked Jerusalem, looted the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, & carried off the True Cross & other relics associated with Jesus Christ. They then burnt the church to the ground. This event shocked the Christian world & Heraclius vowed revenge against Khusro II, & the Persian invaders. It took 12 years before Heraclius could muster the military strength to restore the Byzantine empire to its former greatness. His counter-offensive began in 622 with victory over the Avars, & then the Sassanian Persians. The Persians were crushed & their capital  Ctesiphon looted. The army of Heraclius heroically returned the True Cross & other artifacts that had been looted to Jerusalem. [ATTACH=full]872309[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]872310[/ATTACH] The obverse of the solidus has a portrait of Heraclius with a short beard on the left side & his young son Heraclius Constantine on the right side. The inscription reads: dd . NN . HERACLIuS et hERA . CONST . P. The reverse pictures a Cross potent on three steps with CONOB beneath. The rest of the inscription reads: VICTORIA AVGuIX (IX being the mint mark). The coin was minted early in his reign, probably 613 - 618, & assumed to have been struck at the Jerusalem Mint by most numismatic  authors, with some reservations. Some sources thought the coins could have been minted in Cyprus or Alexandria, or even a mobile mint traveling with Heraclius's army. In 1987 David Sear listed the coin under the Jerusalem Mint in his book BYZANTINE COINS AND THEIR VALUES. Harlan Berk listed also listed the coin under the Jerusalem Mint in his 1986 book Roman Gold Coins of the Medieval World, 383 - 1453 A.D. Wayne Sayles also listed & pictured the coin type under the Jerusalem Mint in his 1998 book ANCIENT COIN COLLECTING V, The Romaion / Byzantine Culture. [ATTACH=full]872335[/ATTACH]  Jonathan Kern sent the coin to ICG (Independent Coin Grading) for slabbing & they put Jerusalem on the label. When Kern sent the coin to ICG for attribution & slabbing NGC had an ancient coin department that was amateurish, while ICG had a level of expertise that NCG lacked. Simon Bendall was the first expert to call this coin type a product of the Jerusalem Mint, & most numismatists followed suit. However, in 2002 he presented a research paper Byzantine coinage of the mint of Jerusalem, detailing four types of coins that had been attributed to the Jerusalem Mint, including bronze folli. This paper gives a close look at the history & transition from Phocas to Heraclius & the probability of which mints struck the coins in question. His paper is thoughtfully researched & gives a very convincing argument that the type solidus in my collection is not a product of the Jerusalem Mint. He does not determine where this type of solidus was minted but states they are not a product of the Constantinople Mint, the Antioch, Cyprus, or Alexandria Mint, but probably an Eastern mint. After digesting his paper I removed the coin from the ICG slab & much later sent the coin to NGC after learning David Vagi had taken the job of head of the ancient coin department. The coin came back labeled: MS(with star), Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, uncertain irregular mint. Today most numismatists believe this coin type was struck by a mobile military mint traveling with the army of Heraclius. Most of these coins on the market today, & the number is small, are in mint or near mint state, indicating they got little or no circulation. Sometimes what we assume to be most obvious is later discarded when new research presents itself. Anyone interested in Simon Bendall's paper can follow the link below.<a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_2003_num_6_159_2517" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_2003_num_6_159_2517" rel="nofollow">https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_2003_num_6_159_2517</a>[/QUOTE]

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