Leontius seized the throne in 695 by having Justinian II's nose cut off — a deliberate act of disfigurement intended to bar him from future rule under Byzantine convention — then found himself deposed in turn just three years later by the general Apsimar, who took the name Tiberius III. The entire reign fits inside a window of acute military crisis, with Arab forces capturing Carthage in 698 and effectively ending Byzantine Africa for good.
The brevity of his rule makes any gold issue from this period genuinely scarce by survival. Three years of legitimate striking, then nothing.
Leontius seized the throne in 695 by having Justinian II's nose cut off — a deliberate act of disfigurement intended to bar him from future rule under Byzantine convention — then found himself deposed in turn just three years later by the general Apsimar, who took the name Tiberius III. The entire reign fits inside a window of acute military crisis, with Arab forces capturing Carthage in 698 and effectively ending Byzantine Africa for good.
The brevity of his rule makes any gold issue from this period genuinely scarce by survival. Three years of legitimate striking, then nothing.