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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Voulgaroktonou, post: 3201174, member: 84047&quot;]In addition to these lead coronation issues of John II, there are also fractional lead pieces attribued to the final years of Maurice Tiberius as well as a rare series issued under Constans II. A dear friend, Cecile Morrisson, published a study of this series in a 1981 article: &quot;Monnaies en plomb Byzantines de la fin du VIe et du debut du VIIe siecle&quot; (Riv. It. di Numis. e scienze affini, LXXXIII (1981), 119-132). She labels this on p. 126 a money of necessity produced by local (?) authorities due to a shortage of regular currency occasioned by internal troubles. She postulates they may have appeared in the turbulent years preceding the fall of Phocas, distaste for whom being expressed by the anepigraphic obverse recalling issues of the previous reign.</p><p>Although they are not in Sear, Hahn, or DO, to organize them in my own collection, I have assigned them examples with &quot;Sear&quot; numbers. My examples include:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]828555[/ATTACH] </p><p>(Sear) 612B.&nbsp; Decanummium. 15 mm. 2.70 gr. 10 hr. C. Morrisson, op. cit., #6-21. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]828559[/ATTACH] </p><p>(Sear) 612C. Pentanummium. 13.4 mm. 1.77 gr. 7 hr. C. Morrisson, op. cit.,</p><p>&nbsp;#26 (Kovacs collection). The Kovacs specimen is described as having no cross on obverse and having the epsilon accompanied by an A in addition to the cross. These features are not clear on the illustration. Misdescribed? A similar specimen will appear in a future Nomos sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]828569[/ATTACH] </p><p>(Sear) 612D Pentanummium. 16.5 mm. 2.99 gr.&nbsp; 2 hr. Not in C.M.&#039;s article. The reverse, however, recalls the Antiochene pentanummia of Justinian I (DOC 268d) dated to 529/39.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]828572[/ATTACH] </p><p>(Sear) 1028A. Dodecanummium. 16 mm. 4.38 gr. 2 hr. C. Morrisson, op. cit., #27 (this coin). CM discusses on p. 124 the existance of this coin as well as of a six nummia of rougher fabric. &quot;Aucun type monetaire toutefois ne peut avoir servi de modele direct a ce droit, encore moins a la combinaison de celui-ci avec les valeurs egyptiennes du reverse. La question doit rester en suspens dans l&#039;attente de decouvertes ulterieures dont le contexte apporterait des elements nouveaux.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>CM&#039;s article cites this coin as belonging to a private north German collection, but I found it one day looking through Harlan Berk&#039;s office safe (with his permission, of course!) Presumably struck during the turbulent 640s, when the Byzantines were trying to restore imperial rule to Egypt. Foss&#039;s Arab-Byzantine Coins, p. 96, notes that the excavations of Abu Mina near Alexandria reveal extensive attempts to replenish the supply of coinage, which evidently ebbed during the Persian occupation. These issues are limited to dodecanummia, although Foss does not indicate the presence of lead coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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