dougsmit recently started a thread about peter I wire money, this made me go on ebay and buy a small lot of wire money. yes..it made me do it. I posted a few in that thread, but neither of these are peter the great coins, so i'll post them here. considering all the problems these coins have, this one is pretty nice. wish I had a better picture. Wire Kopeck of Tsar Vasiliy Ivanovich Shuiskiy 1606-1610 O: horseman holding a spear , mint engraver's mark "ПС" below R: cyrillic legend ("Czar and Great Duke Vasiliy Ivanovich of Entire Rus"). 12x15 mm 0.7 g Mint: Pskov this fellow is kind of interesting, became tzar (sort of) after taking out a "fake" tzar fellow who was impersonating one of ivan the terrible's grand kids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_IV_of_Russia this coin had some hard green gunk on the reverse, I'm surprised it came off after a week long distilled water soak and some "pickin'". and this one, an ivan iv type I didn't have yet... Ivan IV denga 1547 O: horseman holding a sabre, the mint engraver's mark "ДЕ", circular dotted line. R: cyrillic legend ("Czar and Grand Prince Ivan"), circular dotted line. 9x11mm 0.4 g Mint: Moscow
Nice wire money, my friend .... you are way ahead of me in the wire money race!! => it has now been jotted-down on my wish-list (so this may make me go on ebay and buy a small lot of wire money. yes..it may make me do it)
Btw, as an aside, do you know why the started calling themselves Czars, (Caesar), to begin with? The Duke of Moscow married the daughter of the last ruler of Byzantium. Constantine XI had 3 daughters, all of them marrying into royal lines. His only son disappeared into oblivion. But, this is the reason Russia has always considered themselves the rightful heir to the Roman empire.
Can you provide names for the grooms and brides? I know Ivan III married a niece of C XI but was not aware of the daughters.
So was it John VIII's daughters then? That could be, but of course John VIII was the last real ruler of Byzantium, with his brother Constantine XI being a caretaker, waiting for the end a few years later. Sorry if I misspoke.
perhaps I should have studied ancient history so that I'd know what your talking about. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to pre mideval/renaissance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Palaiologina tells of her father Thomas who was the youngest brother of Constantine XI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos#Family says C XI had one daughter Anastasia (I never knew that before seeing this). She still was Roman royalty and would do to allow them to claim the title Caesar.
interesting, i knew the term came from "caesar", but i didn't know there was only about 6 degrees (or 12) of separation there. one more step an we would make it to kevin bacon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Rome ...and the symbol of the russian empire is pretty much the symbol of the last byzantine dynasty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Russia#1721.E2.80.931917:_Russian_Empire
