Justinian II's first reign ended violently in 695 when he was deposed by Leontios, had his nose cut off, and was exiled to Crimea — the mutilation intended to disqualify him from the throne under Byzantine convention. It didn't work. He returned ten years later with a Bulgar army and retook Constantinople. The Syracuse mint, operating under increasingly difficult conditions as Arab pressure on Sicily intensified through this period, produced notoriously irregular flans with significant weight variation across the series.
Justinian II's first reign ended violently in 695 when he was deposed by Leontios, had his nose cut off, and was exiled to Crimea — the mutilation intended to disqualify him from the throne under Byzantine convention. It didn't work. He returned ten years later with a Bulgar army and retook Constantinople. The Syracuse mint, operating under increasingly difficult conditions as Arab pressure on Sicily intensified through this period, produced notoriously irregular flans with significant weight variation across the series.