Got A Plague Coin!

Reached a deal with a fellow CC member to acquire this, a 40 nummi follis of Justinian I, Eastern Roman emperor. It's from year 14 of his reign, so 541 AD, the year before the plague named after him reached Constantinople and killed a large portion of the city's huge population, and devastated the rest of the empire. If the coin stayed circulating in the city at the time, who knows how many unlucky people held it before succumbing to the disease. Even Emperor Justinian himself contracted the plague, but lived.

This outbreak also had a profound effect on his attempts to reestablish Roman control over the west, lost to the migrating Germanic tribes in the previous century. Roman control of Italy, (after capturing it from the Ostrogoths) for example, became very weak as a result (army getting infected, locals dying off, Italian economy getting hit bad), and adding to the devastation that the Gothic War had already brought to the peninsula.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian

I had been looking for a forward-facing Justinian follis (already have a facing decanummium) of good quality like this one for a good while until now. I had found a different one and I posted it on here but my suspicions were confirmed when it was determined to be a fake, so this member offered to sell me this one (thanks friend!).

Justinian I, Byzantine emperor
AE Follis (40 nummi)
Obv: DN IVSTINI-ANVS PP AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing, holding cross on globe and shield, cross to right
Rev: Large M, ANNO to left, regnal year XIII to right, cross above, officina letter B below
CON in ex, Constantinople mint, struck 541 AD
Ref: SB 163
40.4 mm, 21.70 gr.