This 12-nummi piece is the final Byzantine coin struck in Egypt, and therefore the final coinage issue of Christian Egypt as well. It was minted during the brief period when the Byzantines reconquered Egypt from the Arabs, only to lose the city permanently several months later.

The Arabs began to clash with the Byzantines two years after the Prophet’s death in 634; by 638 they had conquered all of Syria and Palestine and the invasion of Egypt began the following year. The dying emperor Heraclius was not able to muster a formidable resistance, and Alexandria, the capital of Byzantine Egypt, finally fell in September of 641. However, Egypt was the richest province of the Byzantine Empire and the main source of grain for Constantinople, as it had been for Rome several centuries earlier. Byzantine leaders refused to accept the loss of such an important city, the empire’s second-largest at the time.

In 645, after four years of Muslim rule, a massive Byzantine fleet led by the patrician Manuel retook the city in a daring operation. The Byzantines established control over the city itself and much of the surrounding countryside, and for the moment it looked as if the reconquest might be permanent. The Arabs, not content to cede Egypt’s most lucrative port back to the Byzantines, mounted a large counterattack of their own the following year, which forever drove the Byzantines from Egypt. The Byzantine dream of reclaiming the land along the Nile never died – the Byzantines mounted several raids on Egypt in the following centuries and joint invasions of Egypt with the Crusaders as late as the 12th century, over 500 years after the province was lost. But the recapture of Alexandria in 645-646, during which this coin was minted, was the last time that the Byzantines were actually able to exercise control in Egypt.

Since they were only struck for a matter of months, these 12-nummi pieces are quite scarce, with only a handful coming up for sale each year, but nevertheless still very affordable. I was able to purchase the coin above for less than $50. It’s a fascinating piece of history that belongs in any Byzantine collection.