Watch List notes:

ISLAMIC, Time of the Rashidun. Pseudo-Byzantine types. Follis (Bronze, 22 mm, 4.61 g, 7 h), Transitional coin, uncertain mint, circa late AH 40s = late AD 660s. Imperial figure, bearded and wearing crown surmounted by cross, standing facing on the left and holding long cross in his right hand; Imperial figure, beardless and wearing crown surmounted by cross, standing facing on the right and holding globus cruciger; above, cross. Rev. Large M between A/N/o and X/Ч/II; above, monogram; below inverted crescent; in exergue, CON. T. Goodwin, 'What can we learn from 'Transitional' coins?' in: Coinage and History in the Seventh Century Near East, volume 6, p. 124, Fig. 4b. Very rare. An unusually attractive example. Very fine.


Our coin is a Pseudo-Byzantine type with an obverse copying a Class 5 follis of Heraclius and a reverse closely matching the reverse of an Imperial image type struck in Dimashq from the second phase of the Arab-Byzantine coinage (cf. T. Goodwin, What can we learn from 'Transitional' coins?, p. 124, Fig. 4c).