8 Nummi - Justinian I Thessalonica, Type •

Thessalonica was the second city of the Byzantine Balkans, and its mint operated with a degree of administrative independence that occasionally produced local variants diverging from Constantinople's output. The Type • designation distinguishes this issue by its officina mark — a single pellet — used to track production batches at a mint handling military pay distribution for campaigns against Gothic and later Avar pressure along the Danube frontier. Justinian's monetary reform of 538 reorganized the fractional bronze denominations, but small issues like this 8-nummi piece had been circulating in the Thessalonican hinterland well before that reorganization rationalized the system.