1 Tremissis In the name of Heraclius, Realistic bust, large head

Byzantine tremisses circulated so widely across post-Roman Italy that Lombard and other regional authorities found it more practical to imitate them than to establish wholly independent monetary traditions. The duchy's issues in Heraclius's name belong to this habit of pseudonymous striking — coins produced under Lombard-controlled Tuscany that invoke imperial legitimacy without any genuine connection to Constantinople.

Heraclius himself was occupied with the catastrophic Persian wars and later the Arab conquests throughout this period, leaving peripheral territories to manage their own bullion needs under whatever political fiction proved convenient.