Beautiful Example: Justin II - M Follis. 565-578 Ad. Theoupolis Yr 12.

Bob; About the blundered legend: Looking below from Britannica as the city was captured right before and after this time by Persians, who do you suppose was actually striking the coin? I mean, is there a school of thought that a non native Greek speaking person might be employed in the die making?

"Antioch prospered in the 4th and 5th centuries from nearby olive plantations, but the 6th century brought a series of disasters from which the city never fully recovered. A fire in 525 was followed by earthquakes in 526 and 528, and the city was captured temporarily by the Persians in 540 and 611. Antioch was absorbed into the Arab caliphate in 637."

Question, why did they put the word 'ANNO' on the coin, but then not put the date? Doesn't ANNO mean 'year of' in Latin?

Year 12 (XII - to the right of the M) of Justin II's reign.

Echizento discusses the dating of Byzantine coins on page 71 here: https://www.coincommunity.com/ancie...%20Guide.pdf

I was another who didn't understand the dating system of the Byzantine coins, and have a better understanding of it now. I am grateful to Bob_L and other members for providing links to mines of information, such as this guide.

The "guide" is an impressive work, and has so much information in one package. Instead of searching all over the internet for answers, I'm sure that most of what I could be looking for would be found here.

I enjoyed the Greek section very much, and especially the plate of silver coin denominations with the relative sizes and weights. The Seleucid section also has much information that I find extremely useful. For instance, I wondered why I had never seen a coin of Seleukos V, and there is the answer - no coins were struck.

Thank you for publishing the Ancient Coin Reference Guide Echizento, and I hope that Bob_L, Palouche, and others will continue to post links to informational gems such as this.

Jim