40 Nummi - Justin II and Aelia Sophia Cyzicus

Justin II ruled during one of Byzantium's most pressured decades — the Avars were consolidating along the Danube, the Lombards had just seized northern Italy in 568, and Sassanid tensions would eventually collapse the eastern truce entirely by 572. Aelia Sophia, his wife, appears on the coinage not as ceremonial decoration but as a genuine political actor; contemporary sources credit her with negotiating directly with the Avars when Justin's mental health deteriorated sharply in the 570s, effectively conducting diplomacy in his name.

Cyzicus, on the Propontis, was one of the more active provincial mints of the reign. The workshop officina letters on this type allow reasonably precise sequencing within the 567–578 bracket.