BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Constans II, AD 641-668
AE Dodecanummium (12 Nummi). 7.5g, 21mm
MINTED: Alexandria mint, circa AD 645-646
REF: Sear Byzantine 1027; DOC 105
OBVERSE: Emperor standing facing, holding long staff surmounted by staurogram in right hand and globus cruciger in left.
REVERSE: Large IB with cross potent on globe between; AΛEΞ (Alexandria) in exergue.
 
Grade/Notes:
Fine. Red-brown to brassy surfaces. Decent example of this scarcer historical type.
This coin was struck either between Constans' accession to power in September 641 and the fall of Alexandria to the Arabs in November of the same year, or in late 645 to May 646, when the Byzantine commander Manuel briefly regained control over the city, before losing it again to the Arabs.
 
Historical Notes:
Constans II, nicknamed 'the Bearded', was grandson and a successor of Emperor Heraclius (AD 610-641). He unsuccessfully attempted to seek a compromise between adherents of Christian Orthodoxy and Monothelitism within the Empire, and at one point he was even forced to arrest and exile the Pope (Martin I). Constans also struggled to forestall the advance of the Arab Caliphate into Empire's eastern territories, even losing a huge fleet of 500 ships at the Battle of the Masts in 655. In 663, Constans visited Rome, the first emperor to do so in two centuries. Historical records in ancient China mention embassies sent by Constans II to the court of the Tang Emperor, Taizong, in 643 and 667.