1 Tremissis In the name of Justin II, Victory facing right, with star and floating

The Lombards invaded northern Italy in 568 — the very year this coinage begins — sweeping into a peninsula still nominally under Byzantine administration. Rather than mint in their own name, early Lombard rulers struck tremisses imitating Byzantine prototypes, a deliberate policy that eased commercial acceptance in territories where Byzantine coin types remained the transactional standard. The practice persisted for over a century, which is why the same imperial name spans such a wide date range on this type.

The "floating" Victory — a known degeneration of the Byzantine model — is a useful diagnostic for Lombard attribution rather than genuine Byzantine product. Die cutting quality deteriorated progressively across the series.