Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Phocas AV Half Tremissis. Spanish mint (Carthago Spartaria?), AD 602-610. D N FOCO P P AVG, bust to right, wearing double diadem topped with cross on circlet, cuirass and paludamentum / VICTORIA AV, large Christogram; CONOB in exergue. Unpublished in the standard references; for mint identification, cf. P Grierson, 'Una ceca bizantina en España', Numario Hispanico 4, pp. 305-14; for other Spanish issues in the name of Phocas, cf. DOC 136, MIBE 36, Sear 709, and BnF p. 244; for Half Tremisses, cf. DOC 20, MIBE 28-9, and Sear 635-635A. 0.75g, 13mm, 5h.
Near Mint State. Unique and unpublished.
Ex Teutoburger Münzauktion 142, 28 February 2022, lot 6 (erroneously catalogued as a 'Fantasieprägung').
Philip Grierson's article of 1955 is to be credited with the identification of a Byzantine mint in southern Spain. All of the then known examples of this mint until now were pale gold tremisses that resemble in general style, fineness, spread flans, fabric and letter forms to the near contemporary Visigothic issues of Leovigild (cf. MEC I, 209-10 and Miles 1-45). The only recorded examples include: 3 tremisses in the name of Justinian I (MIBE 27; DOC 376; Sear 343); 4 tremisses in the name of Justin II (MIBE 19; Sear 416i); 6 tremisses in the name of Maurice (MIBE 27; Sear 612); 5 specimens in the name of Phocas (MIBE 36; DOC 136; Sear 709); and 4 tremisses in the name of Heraclius (MIB 96; DOC 312; Sear 927). The weight standard is exactly compatible with that of a Half Tremissis, i.e. 1/6 Solidus = 1/144 pound.
According to Isidore of Sevilla in his History of the Goths, Provincia Spaniae became a province of the Byzantine Empire from about AD 552 after a general revolt in southern Spain against the Arian rule of the Visigothic King Agila I, led by a nobleman named Athanagild who asked Justinian for help. The help came in the form of a fleet with a small army of 2,000 led by the octogenarian patrician Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius, which prevailed and Athanagild was crown king of the Visigoths in 554. However, the Romans kept most of their new possessions loosely attached to the African prefecture, but there are very few details as to the extent of the Byzantine province.
It never extended very far inland and received relatively little attention from East Roman authorities, probably because it was designed as a defensive bulwark against a Visigothic invasion of Africa, an unnecessary distraction at a time when the Sasanian Empire was a larger threat in the East. It comprised districts and towns of the southern littoral of the old province of Baetica and Carthaginensis and included the principal cities of Gades, Malaca, Corduba and New Carthage, renamed Carthago Spartaria, the likely seat of the imperial mint.
Near Mint State. Unique and unpublished.
Ex Teutoburger Münzauktion 142, 28 February 2022, lot 6 (erroneously catalogued as a 'Fantasieprägung').
Philip Grierson's article of 1955 is to be credited with the identification of a Byzantine mint in southern Spain. All of the then known examples of this mint until now were pale gold tremisses that resemble in general style, fineness, spread flans, fabric and letter forms to the near contemporary Visigothic issues of Leovigild (cf. MEC I, 209-10 and Miles 1-45). The only recorded examples include: 3 tremisses in the name of Justinian I (MIBE 27; DOC 376; Sear 343); 4 tremisses in the name of Justin II (MIBE 19; Sear 416i); 6 tremisses in the name of Maurice (MIBE 27; Sear 612); 5 specimens in the name of Phocas (MIBE 36; DOC 136; Sear 709); and 4 tremisses in the name of Heraclius (MIB 96; DOC 312; Sear 927). The weight standard is exactly compatible with that of a Half Tremissis, i.e. 1/6 Solidus = 1/144 pound.
According to Isidore of Sevilla in his History of the Goths, Provincia Spaniae became a province of the Byzantine Empire from about AD 552 after a general revolt in southern Spain against the Arian rule of the Visigothic King Agila I, led by a nobleman named Athanagild who asked Justinian for help. The help came in the form of a fleet with a small army of 2,000 led by the octogenarian patrician Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius, which prevailed and Athanagild was crown king of the Visigoths in 554. However, the Romans kept most of their new possessions loosely attached to the African prefecture, but there are very few details as to the extent of the Byzantine province.
It never extended very far inland and received relatively little attention from East Roman authorities, probably because it was designed as a defensive bulwark against a Visigothic invasion of Africa, an unnecessary distraction at a time when the Sasanian Empire was a larger threat in the East. It comprised districts and towns of the southern littoral of the old province of Baetica and Carthaginensis and included the principal cities of Gades, Malaca, Corduba and New Carthage, renamed Carthago Spartaria, the likely seat of the imperial mint.