I'm John the 8th, I am

CNG had 6 of these up for auction recently, I bid on two of them and won one. Nearly all went for double the estimate, and it's one I wanted for a long time now. The denomination is a stavraton a.k.a. a half-hyperpyron. It was the heaviest regular issue silver coin ever to be struck in the Byzantine Empire except possibly for rare medallions and ceremonial coinage. Without gold coins being struck during the same period, it was the highest valued Byzantine coin of the day.

The coin was struck under John VIII Palaeologus during the last years of the Byzantine empire. Besides his date of birth of December 18, 1392 I did not find much information about his childhood or life before ruling, only that he married 3 times and had no children. He was the eldest son of Manuel II Palaeologus and Helena Dragas, the daughter of the Serbian Prince Constantine Dragas. He was crowned co-Emperor with his father in 1408, and became sole ruler in 1421. Two years before he came to the throne, Thessalonica was given to the Venetians in the hope of saving it from the Ottomans. His empire at this time was reduced to a tiny portion of Thrace, a few islands, the city of Constantinople, and the Morea.

This map shows the height of the Byzantine empire during Justinian's time in contrast to the empire during John's rule below.




In June 1422, he over saw the defense of Constantinople during a siege by Murad II, but had to accept the loss of Thessalonica, which his brother Andronikos had given to Venice in 1423. When his father passed in 1425 he ruled only the area immediately surrounding Constantinople. His brothers still controlled what was left of the Greek Peloponnese and areas on the Black Sea. After Thessalonica fell to the Turks in March of 1430, he went to Italy for assistance to keep the empire alive.

This painting is said to represent John VIII and is located in Florence Italy.


There he placed the rights of the Byzantine church under the jurisdiction of the Pope. He hoped this would align a Crusade against the Ottomans and save his crumbling Empire. However the Crusade was defeated at Varna in 1444, and any hope of salvation died with it.

He died October 31st 1448 in Constantinople. 5 years later on May 23rd 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks and ended the Byzantine empire. He was succeeded by his brother Constantine XI.

This coin will fit nicely with possibly one of the last coins minted by the Byzantines from another post. Even though it is flat on the low points, I choose it because of how little wear it has, centering, and much of the inscription visible.


John VIII Palaeologus
Constantinople mint
1425-1448
AR Stavraton, 23x24mm, 7.08g
Obvs: Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator; barred IC XC across field; sigla: blank | Λ Revs: +ωAHCΔϵCΠOTHCOΠAΛϵΛOΓOC +ΘVXAPITHBACIΛϵVCTOиPOMϵON in two lines around crowned bust of John; sigla: pellet | pellet.
DOC 1663-4; SB 2564

Numismatic Notes: There seems to be two different stylistic types of these in addition to other denominations. Mine appears to be a cruder and possibly a later version from his reign. These have numerous variations in both obverse and reverse fields. On either side of both Christ and John are varying marks (sigla). Mine happen to be nothing | Λ on the obverse and pellet | pellet on the reverse.


References
Vagi, David. "Most silver coins from Byzantine Constantinople’s mint are rarer than the empire’s other issues". Coin world, https://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/2016/12/rare-byzantine-silver-coins-ancients-today.2.html

Wikipedia. A political map of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in 1450. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_revolt_of_1453–1454#/media/File:Eastern_Mediterranean_1450.svg

Pile on your Byzantines.

 

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Killer coin and loved the write up and maps! We'll done!


Manuel I, AD 1143-1180
Billon trachy, 30mm, 2.7g, 6h; Constantinople mint, AD 1167-1183.
Obv.: Christ, bearded, seated facing on throne without back, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium, colobium, Gospels in left; no stars; in field / IC – XC
Rev.: MANYHΛ ∆ECΠ; the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) standing facing at right, crowning the emperor standing at left, holding labarum and globus cruciger; M above Mary's outstretched hand.

My only Byzantine.

 

Very nice pickup on a very difficult series! All of those that were listed were in great condition, but I was hoping they had other denominations other than the half and full, but alas that wasn't the case. Here are mine that I bought during the Andre Constantine Dimitriadis auction. I should have bought more coins that just these two. @dougsmit has a sick looking one! One of the best I have seen...

Byzantine Empire: Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425) AR half-stavraton, Constantinople (Sear-2551; DOC 1453)

Obv: Facing bust of Christ Pantocrator, with crucifom nimbus, holding book of Gospels; IC - XC over C - Φ flanking
Rev: [MA]NOVHΛ BACIΛЄVC O ΠΑΛЄ[OΛOΓOC], nimbate and crowned facing bust of Manuel; Φ-C flanking




Byzantine, John VIII Palaeologus (1425-1448) AR stavraton, Constantinople (Sear-2563; DOC 1663)

Obv: Facing bust of Christ Pantocrator, with radiate nimbus, flanked by IC - XC and • - ? / + IΩANHC ΔECΠOTHC O ΠΑΛΕΟΛΟΓOC (outer circle);
Rev: + ΘV XAPITI AVTOKPATWP (inner circle), facing bust of John, crowned and nimbate; sigla: pellet | pellet

 

Cool coin and a great write-up. Yeah, the empire was diminished quite a bit by the 1440's. My old professor of Byzantine studies, Dr. Warren Treadgold, would have been crying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Treadgold

 

Here's mine! I am forever grateful to Baldwin's summer catalog because it alerted me to the fact they had one for sale at all, and it was the only thing on the list I could afford. When I went to their shop, that one had sold, but they had a group of five to choose from. This one was, in my opinion, the best. Also, When I visited Mr. Kern the year before he went out of business, I noticed he had a very nice stavraton that was a very high weight (7.08 g) and an almost complete design. Of course, I couldn't afford it, but it was very neat to see it, because before that I had never seen any Byzantine coins in person, besides the one that started my obsession with it.

 

Nice job capturing this tough issue! Nice write-up and a great coin to win! Well done!

I do not have a lot during the BYZ period... and none as nearly late as yours in their Empire:


BZ Andronicus II - Michael IX 1295-1320 AR Basilikon 22mm 2.1g Constantinople Christ enthroned - Andronicus l Michael r labarum DOC V 1 Class VIII


BZ Manuel I Comnenus 1143-1180 CE Aspron Trachy 35mm 46g Christ Gospels Labaran globus cruciger Virgin maphorium SB 1966 scyphate


BZ Justinian I 527-565 CE AE30 Folles 12-2g 40 Nummi M monogram

 

Here's an anonymous folle, actually Romanus I:

 

Those are great! I don't see smaller denominations that often. I agree Doug's is awesome.

Thanks for the kind words. That's a nice Basilikon, I have a similar.

Andronicus II/Michael IX
Constantinople
AR Basilikon
1295 to 1320 AD
Obvs: IC - XC KVRIE BOHΘE, Christ enthroned.
Revs: AVTΩKPATO-PEC PωMAION, Andronicus and Michael holding labarum between them.
20mm, 1.70g
Ref: DOC 523, Sear 2402

I took a class at the ANA with Prue Morgan Fitts, and I could tell she was also upset with the end of the empire.

 

I think that Class B Anonymous folles were struck under Romanos III? Romanos I Lekapenos had coins issued with his portrait on them, like this one:


Romanos II was the son of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos. Here's a coin of Constantine:


Finally, my latest coin, a Class B Anonymous Follis:

 

Here is my anonymous Follis. My first Byzantine, thanks to Mr. Kern.

 

Actually, here is a file with all of my Byzantine coins I own.

 

It looks like a nice hexagram is in there as well! Nice folles, too!

 

Speaking of which, a new one should be on its way. I’ll post it when it gets here.

 

Oh wow! They all look so yummy. I'm especially fond of the Manuel Trachy & The "Seated on Throne" Justinian. Very nice group.

Here's my Manuel Trachy:

 

My criteria for collecting Byzantine was that I would get one coin of whoever I considered the best emperor of each dynasty. I decided to stick to folles and aspron trachies just to narrow it down as “middle of the road” collecting (no gold, but no pentanummi either). I guess I sort of broke that rule with the decanummi, but I don’t really think of that one as one of my prize specimens. If I had a second chance I don’t think I would have bought it. Anyway, I found out rather quickly that I didn’t particularly like overstrikes, so Heraclius’s follis was out of the running so to speak. I then decided to get the hexagram instead, which has great detail for the price it was.

The trachy was essentially a lucky win, given that mine was bought by one of those “typical image” orders. Mine was the reverse image. The follis, as you can see, was bought at Baldwin’s when I was there last summer. If you ever get the chance to go I highly prefer the physical shop over the online one. Most of their Byzantine bronzes were surprisingly less than what I would expect, and I really liked the seated throne Justinian. That was a great opportunity to check some rulers off my list. Currently, I only have three people left.

 

Very nice Byzanz y'all! I am glad there are more collectors now, but don't care too much about the competition ...

 

Thank you for sharing a well written and informative write up! It's great to read Byzantine themed posts, of which there have been several lately. I also was watching the last CNG auction for those stavrata and I conveniently forgot about it until Thursday! I love the coinage of the Palaeologan dynasty, although most of my numismatic friends question my taste for them...And little wonder, I will sheepishly admit. Just before DOC V was published, I was honored to be invited by Dumbarton Oaks to a party to view the page proofs and to celebrate Grierson's finishing the DOC set. One of the attendees mentioned to Grierson that indeed the 14th c. copper coins display an astonishing variety of types, but he wondered how anyone could stand to look at them! Well, I like them! But I really love the stavrata. I find them hauntingly beautiful, and as a last expression of "ancient" Hellenism, in their weight, heavier than any previous Byzantine silver coin, almost a revival of the early Greek didrachm. Here are a few of mine.

John V, 1379-91
Sear 2510; DO 1266-77
8.03 gr. Stavraton


Manuel II, 1391-95
Sear 2548; DO 1308-09
7.94 gr. Stavraton


Manuel II, 1391-95
Sear 2550; DO 1312
3.43 gr. Half Stavraton


John VII, 1399-1403
Sear 2562; DO 1334-5 var.
3.65 gr. Half Stavraton


John VIII, 1425-48
Sear 2564; DO 1636-8 var.
7.09 gr. Stavraton


Constantine XI, 1449-1453
Sear -; Bendall 129 (this coin)
0.63 gr. 1/8 Stavraton

 

That's an awesome Byzantine @David@PCC , the penultimate dude!

Here's a coin I don't post much, as it is really ugly, but it is related and interesting.



Bulgaria, Ivan Stratzimir, 1360-1396 AD, AR Ducat

O: Czar enthroned. R: Bust of Christ. Greirson 388, 18 mm, 0.8 g

This dude was pretty much the last Bulgarian Czar before the Ottomans rolled through the area. There wouldn't be independent Bulgarian coins again until the 19th century.

This a great group of coins you have @Voulgaroktonou !