Watch List notes:

Phocas, 602-610. Decanummium (Bronze, 15 mm, 2.82 g, 5 h), uncertain eastern mint but almost certainly Nicomedia. d N FOCA PERP AVG Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Phocas to right. Rev. Large X with a cross above. Cf. DOC 40 and MIBE N74 (pentanummia from Nicomedia). SB -. A hitherto unpublished type for Phocas. Light green patina; well-centered and struck. Porosity on the high points, otherwise, good very fine.

From virtually all of his mints the most common decanummium obverse type for Phocas bears a facing bust of the emperor, rather than one in profile. The only decanummii that do show the emperor in profile are those from Ravenna, but their reverses have the mint name R-A/VEN across the field and in the exergue, and have a star in place of the cross. While the mint responsible for striking of this coin is uncertain, it is stylistically quite different from those of Ravenna. However, the reverse here is identical to those found on the facing bust decanummi of Phocas from Constantinople, Nicomedia and Cyzicus, and the style is quite clean and clear, as is also the case from the contemporary issues of those three mints. The dies for this piece were carefully engraved, bold and precisely centered. What makes it virtually certain that this coin was struck at Nicomedia is the fact that pentanummia were struck there with the same obverse bust - and legend - and the same form of anepigraphic reverse with just a denomination letter (though lacking a cross). As for the standard Nicomedian decanummia, they have the same reverse as this piece but bear the usual facing bust of the emperor. This coin is likely to have been a test issue that was not approved.