Mezezius (obverse)

Auction date: 11 January 2006 Lot number: 531 Price realized: 50,000 USD Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. Lot description:

Mezezius. (668-669 AD). Gold solidus (3.96 gm). Syracuse. D N MEZEZI P P [AVU], bust facing with beard and long moustache, wearing plumed helmet and cuirass, and holding globus cruciger and shield / VICTORIA AVGU E (?), cross potent on three steps, CONOB beneath. BMC (Constantine IV) 54, Pl. XXXVII. 12 (same obverse die). Berk 167. Sear 1146. MIB 9. Extremely rare: perhaps only the sixth known specimen. Slightly clipped but with the usurper's name clear and sharp. Good very fine. Constans II was assassinated in his bath at Syracuse in the summer of 668 AD. The Armenian noble Mezezius, one of the conspirators, was proclaimed emperor by the army in Sicily, but his usurpation was soon suppressed by the exarch of Ravenna. The coinage of Mezezius was recognized only in 1978, when a specimen with clear legends first came to light. Earlier examples had been attributed to Constantine IV, and are catalogued as such in almost all the standard works of reference. In DO this variety is assigned to an uncertain Balkan mint; in BMC to Carthage; and in MIB to Constantinople. Other known specimens included: 1) British Museum (BMC 54=Grierson 559); 2) Barber in Institute, Birmingham; 3) Hess-Leu (April 1963), lot 326 (perhaps the Barber Institute specimen); 4) Boham's (3 December 1980), lot 181; and 5) Sotheby's (2 November 1998), lot 286.