ASIA MINOR. Uncertain. Tessera (Lead, 23 mm, 15.70 g, 12 h), circa 4th century. Laureate and bearded imperial male head to left. Rev. Φ-Λ Togate figure standing front, head to right, holding long cross in his left hand. Leu Web Auction 5 (2018), 337 corr. (same dies, but misdescribed). A very interesting and unusual piece. Very fine.

This attractive tessera allows for a correction of the description in Leu Web Auction 5, where a die-matching piece in worse condition was misdescribed as being anepigraphic and late Hellenistic. However, the present example clearly shows some additional features, most notably that the obverse head is laureate and hence imperial, and that the reverse figure is holding a long cross and thus early Christian. Last but not least, the tessera also bears a reverse legend of Φ-Λ - perhaps a Greek date of 530, but more likely an abbreviation of an uncertain name