1 Tremissis In the name of Heraclius, Stylized bust

These Lombard tremisses struck in Tuscia during the seventh century imitated Byzantine gold so closely — and so deliberately — that they circulated alongside genuine imperial coin without apparent friction. The stylization of the imperial bust progressively degraded across successive dies, not through carelessness but likely because local moneyers were copying copies rather than working from official prototypes. By the end of the century the image had drifted so far from Heraclius that the attribution survives only through the numismatic genealogy of the type.