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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 4842975, member: 110504&quot;]Brilliant example.&nbsp; I love how the reverse renders &quot;Axum&quot; in Koine Greek.</p><p>I recently held my breath and won this one (...and held my breath again when I paid, ...and when it showed up, for different reasons.)&nbsp; But it was under $600.</p><p>It&#039;s considerably later; Kaleb, the one who invaded western Yemen in the early 6th century, and was in diplomatic contact with Justininian.&nbsp; The only coins issued in his name are gold, which was a selling point.&nbsp; By this time, the Koine Greek legends are beginning to deteriorate, with lots of retrograde letters (ironically, in light of Aksum /Axum&#039;s ongoing status in international trade and geopolitics), but there are also little flashes of Ge&#039;ez, notably Kaleb&#039;s monogram, at the top of the obverse.&nbsp; From the 6th century, the AE starts to have all-Ge&#039;ez legends, but this early in the transition (and in gold), it almost looks more like an assertion of national identity than a concession to prevailing economic realities.&nbsp; ...Yes, the weights were still more or less modeled on the late Roman tremisis.[ATTACH=full]1169593[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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