Featured The Usurper Phokas

Great coins. Thanks for sharing them. The miliarense is probably quite rare I would imagine.

 

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These ceremonial coins, while being long known for all the 7th c. rulers, have been very rare, with numbers often existing in only 1 or 2 specimens of each type. But several auction houses have been offering a few examples from time to time over the last few years. I have been fortunate to acquire 5 from different reigns, if memory serves, over the last couple of years. I am very fond of Byzantine silver in general.

 

Oh my...very nice Phocas miliarense!

 

Here's a threesome from Cyzicus: Phocas' predecessor, Maurice Tiberius, then Phocas, followed by his successor, Heraclius.

Maurice Tiberius, 590/91 AD
Follis
Cyzicus
RY 8, Officina B
Sear 518

11.9 grams

The lighting (natural) makes him look like a deer in the headlights.


Phocas, 607/8 AD
Follis
Cyzicus
RY 6, Officina B
Sear 665

8.9 grams

Heraclius, 612/13 AD
Follis
Cyzicus
RY 3, Officina B
Sear 839

9.9 grams

 

Brand new arrival. This dropped in the mailbox today. I will just share it here as @ancient coin hunter 's write-up is very nice and I don't think there is anything more for me to add to it.



I had no choice but to use flash for the photos. It has a pretty dark patina, and my phone could not catch all the nice details otherwise. Pretty big coin, and quite interestingly it looks like the damage to it is intentional. If I would allow my imagination to run rampant, I would say that it was kept in the breast pocket of a card-thief and it luckily stopped a bullet from a pin-fire revolver or a Sharps Derringer fired by an angry showgirl. Or, something else...

Two questions: Why did Phocas issued follis with either an M or XXXX and didn't stick to a single type? Also, I noticed that the type I got is getting rather high hammer prices in auctions lately.. That is one of the reasons I went for this coin when I saw it in a retailer's stock very reasonably priced. Why are they so popular?

 

Thanks for the compliment. I am not sure why Focas issued them in the XXXX format either. I got mine at auction and the price, frankly, was a bit more than I wanted to pay but I couldn't stop hitting the button as the seconds wound down.

 

I don't recall reading any scholarly comment concerning M or XXXX, although one sees Roman numerals on fractions of the follis under earlier emperors: the thirty and twenty nummia coins of Tiberius II, for example, which are XXX and XX come to mind. It is only when the 3/4 follis is reintroduced under Herakleios, in fact, that the numeral for that denomination is the Greek lambda. It appears that the Roman numeral XXXX was issued in year 2 of Phocas, although there are some coins from this year with the Greek numeral. We know that Phokas erected the last imperial monument in the Roman Forum, the column bearing his name, in 608. Perhaps both can be seen as an intention to show continuity with the Roman past in 7th century East Rome?
Here are 2 of my favorite Phokades:
Cyzicus, 607/8. Follis, 8.64 gr. 30 mm. hr. 6. Sear 665; Hahn 76; DO 73a; BNP 6; BMC 90; Ratto 1237

Antioch, 608/9. Follis, 10.56 gr. 30 mm. hr. 4. Sear 672A; Hahn 84b

 

Yes, the inscription in the Forum is the latest by an emperor in recorded history.