Heraclius came to power in 610 by sailing from Carthage with a fleet, overthrowing the tyrant Phocas, and immediately inheriting a catastrophic war on multiple fronts. The Nicomedia mint — active intermittently under Byzantine authority — was producing folles during a period when the empire was losing Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to the Sassanid Persians, forcing repeated debasement and weight reduction in the bronze coinage. Sear 805 sits within a sequence of types documenting that gradual contraction in flan weight and module across Heraclius's reign.
The Nicomedia mint closed permanently around 629, making its output strictly confined to the first half of the reign.
Heraclius came to power in 610 by sailing from Carthage with a fleet, overthrowing the tyrant Phocas, and immediately inheriting a catastrophic war on multiple fronts. The Nicomedia mint — active intermittently under Byzantine authority — was producing folles during a period when the empire was losing Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to the Sassanid Persians, forcing repeated debasement and weight reduction in the bronze coinage. Sear 805 sits within a sequence of types documenting that gradual contraction in flan weight and module across Heraclius's reign.
The Nicomedia mint closed permanently around 629, making its output strictly confined to the first half of the reign.