1 Tremissis In the name of Heraclius, Realistic bust, regular head without stars

The Lombards, who had seized much of the Italian peninsula from Byzantine control beginning in 568, faced a persistent legitimacy problem: they were a Germanic warrior aristocracy ruling a population that still oriented itself culturally and administratively toward Constantinople. Striking tremisses in the name of Heraclius — decades into his reign, and in some cases likely after his death in 641 — was less homage than political camouflage, a way of inserting Lombard coinage into existing trade networks without alarming merchants or the Church.

The "realistic bust" classification distinguishes this type from the increasingly schematic and abstracted heads that dominate later Lombard gold. It places this issue toward the earlier end of the production window.