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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
147, Lot: 526. Estimate $100.
Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine IV Pogonatus. 668-685. Æ Follis (35mm, 14.36 g). Constantinople mint. Struck 668-673. Helmeted and cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger / Large M, cross above, flanked by Heraclius and Tiberius standing facing, each holding globus cruciger; G/CON. DOC II 28c; SB 1173. VF, dark brown surfaces.


From the Henry Chitwood Collection.

The dawn of the reign of Constantine IV saw the beginning of a brave attempt at coinage reform. Under the reign of his father, Constans II, the ubiquitous bronze follis had decayed into one of the most wretched coinages ever inflicted on a people. Constantine revalued the follis, making it fully equivalent to its ancestor - the first large bronze coin issued under Anastasius I almost two hundred years earlier. Constantine was able to maintain this heavy standard throughout his seventeen year reign, but the succession of Justinian II in 685 saw the immediate revocation of this reform, and the return of the shrunken, cut-down follis of Constans.