Hi,
I've been collecting Byzantine coins for over 30 years. David Sear's book is still the standard as a beginning book. It is unlikely to be updated as David is in his 90's and is trying to finish volume four of the Roman Coins series.
Another book is Byzantine Coins by Philip Grierson the author of Byzantine Coins in the Dunbarton Oaks Collection. Byzantine Coins is a single book with much information and excellent plates. It is out of print as well. You can google it and see what you come up with. I just checked on Amazon.com; they have four starting at $81. It is well worth it as it gives historical import, not just a list of coins.
Sear's book is a guidebook but not much on historical background. Prices listed are very out of date. If you can find a copy of it, you will be spending $85 or so.
My first book was the Sear book, my second was Grierson's. Both are a great start to your library.
Harlan J. Berk published a small but powerful book years ago. I believe it is still available new for around $25 or so titled, Eastern Roman Successors of The Sestertius. He also has another great book, Byzantine Coins. Again small but very informative as it is a hard bound edition of a public auction from December 7, 1989. Some rare stuff as well as choice common material. I believe it's still in the $25. range.
Philip Grierson's monumental work is a NINE volume work, Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection. Originally published in 1966 the current edition is the 1992 Second Impression. You can google it, the last time I saw one for sale, all 9 volumes was around $1000. Sometimes you can find sigles for sale. If you can find a singleton, I'd recommend volume I to start off with and build from there. If you have deep pockets you can bite the bullet and get all of them.
Book seller Charles Davis on VCoins.com sometimes has them available as well as other books on Byzantine Coinage. Don't let the price of books hold you back; most books on ancients are a limited run unlike US coinage books for the masses. Also, Check out coins dealers such as the Vcoins guys, CNG.com, for sales, these are valuable sources for information.
Google is a wonderful source of infomation. Just putting a request for "Coinage of Justinian I" will send you on quite a trip.
I hope this helps
8 years ago