1/2 Siliqua In the name of Heraclius

The Lombards, who swept into northern Italy in 568, lacked the administrative machinery to operate independent mints for decades. Striking coins in the name of the reigning Byzantine emperor was a practical concession — it kept trade functional and avoided the political cost of open monetary defiance. By the mid-seventh century that fiction had grown increasingly thin, and these late pseudo-imperial issues in Heraclius's name were produced well after any meaningful Byzantine authority over Lombard territory had collapsed.

At 0.25g, this is a fractional denomination with almost no margin for die-cutting error — yet Lombard celators were not working to Byzantine standards.