DN FOCA NE PE AV or similar, Phocas on left, holding cross on globe and Leontia, usually but not always nimbate, on right, holding sceptre topped by cross, standing facing / Large m (lower case), ANNO to left, cross above, regnal year (sometimes with dot above) to right, mintmark THEUP'. 26mm, 10.33 grams. Mint of Antioch as Theopolis. SB 671, MIB 83a-b.

Phocas was Byzantine emperor from 602 to 610 CE, having seized the throne after a military revolt overthrew and killed Emperor Maurice. His reign was marked by internal unrest and a disastrous war with the Sasanian Persians, who overran much of the empire’s eastern frontier. Phocas was eventually overthrown by Heraclius in 610 and executed. His wife, Leontia, was crowned Augusta alongside him and appears with Phocas on Byzantine coinage, particularly the distinctive folles showing the imperial couple together. Little is known of her life beyond her role as empress, and her fate after Phocas’s overthrow is uncertain.