When a Hunt Pays off. :)

I have been collecting coins of this denomination for twenty years and I just got a beauty. Anytime you find any of these coins this nice, it is rare. Tetartera were never recalled, they just circulated until more were needed in an area. This particular one is also very scarce , it is a Manuel Comnenus ( Or Komnenos ) He ruled 1143 AD to 1080AD.

MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1969 DOC 16 CLBC 4.4.3
OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand. Pellets in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor, bearded, wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece, jeweled loros of a simplified type and Saigon; holds in right a labrum on a long shaft. On which X and in l. globus cruciger


Size 19.6mm

Weight 3.0


DOC lists 11 examples with weights from 2.76 to 4.14 gm and sizes from 18mm to 20mm

In the last two decades, I only managed to find three other examples as seen bellow. So you can imagine my delight on getting this new one.


Just wanted to share, it pays to keep looking.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Lovely and marvelous.

 

Nice! I have two from Manuel myself:

Byzantine Empire
Manuel I, r. 1143-1180 A.D.
AE Tetarteron, 20.34 mm x 4 grams
Obv.: MANȣHA ΔϵCΠOTHC. Manuel, bearded, stg. facing, wearing crown, division, locos and sagion, and holding cruciform scepter and akakia
Rev.: M̅P̅, Θ̅V̅. The Virgin, nimbate, stg. r., with hands raised towards the hand of God in upper field to r. She wears pallium and maphorium
Ref.: SBCV 1968
(Need to redo this photo - the coin is darker in hand, amd reverse is out of focus)


Byzantine Empire
Manuel I, r. 1143-1180 A.D.
AE Tetartera, 18.18 mm x 3 grams
Obv.: MANVHL DECPOTH, Manuel, crowned and wearing loros, bust facing, holding labarum and cross on globe
Rev.: Barred IC - barred XC to left and right of cross with X at centre, on three steps
Ref.: SBCV 1982
Ex. DC Collection

I’ll admit to ignorance, but is there a purpose behind the shape of many of these being hexagons? I noticed this when I bought a crusader issue from Antioch, which also has the hexagon shape, amd falls into about the same range and size (but I haven’t done much research into it):

Crusader - Antioch
Tancred, Regent, r. 1101-1103, 1104-1112
AE Type 2 Follis, 20.3 mm x 3.3 grams
Obv.: Bust of Tancred facing, wearing turban, holding sword
Rev.: Cross pommetée, fleuronnée at base; IC XC NI KA in quarters
Ref.: De Wit 4079; (Metcalf, Crusades 63-70; CCS 4a)
Overstruck on a First type follis of Tancred (CCS 3b)

 

That is very nice @BenSi !

 

That is incredible! Congratulations

 

Your dates make no sense.. maybe you made an error?

I got it - Born 28 November 1118 –
Ruled 1143 - 24 September 1180
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_Komnenos

 

Your right @paddyman98, typo 1180 AD, sorry about that.

The coin was thought to be minted between 1163 AD to 1183 AD ( His son produced no known coins, Alexius II, it is thought that his coins were minted through his son's short rule.)

The X on the long shaft on the Labarum, I have found interesting, In some of my examples It looks like it was added after the initial strike, I cannot prove that with any certainty but without it the coin ( Besides the legend.) looks very similar to one of his fathers ( John II ) coins. SBCV-1945. Maybe a distinction had to be made.

 

I am ignorant of later Byzantine coins, when were the Tetartera first issued? And were they struck until the fall of the empire? I'm particularly fond of the example in the middle of your 3, with nice green patina and details. I don't really understand them enough to appreciate your successful hunt, but congrats!

 

Good questions @Plumbata they are an obscure part of coin history. They were first minted during the major coin reform of Alexis I Comnenus in 1092. They are the low end of the new coin system , the Hyperpyron, the Aspron Trachy ( aka Trikephalon), Billion Trachy and the tetarteron. In the 1960's a greater focus on the time period of the Comnenus coinage resulted in a ground Breaking Book by Michael Hendy " Coinage and Money in the Byzantine Empire 1081-1261. In that reference he was the first to try and sort out the values of each of these denominations. He later rebuilt upon his work as being the author of the Dumbarton Oakes catalog IV, the one that deals with this time period.
The tetarteron of the 1092 reform is actually multiple denominations, The billion Tetarteron ( Minted in Constantinople and the rarest.) The regional coins and the Semi ( half) tetarteron.

The coin was minted by the official empire until its fall to the Latin's in 1203AD. However, the empire in exile and the Latins produced tetartera as well. The flat produced coins of AE did remain in production until the end of the empire (1453) but they are much lighter and called Follaro and Tornese.

The denomination Tetarteron left many riddles that remain unsolved. Value, limited circulation areas and imitations.

 

Amazing coin, I like it a lot, thank you for sharing.

 

Very cool coin. I have a couple of these types that are very worn...

 

Thanks for taking the time to provide some background! In an attempt to contextualize them with what I'm more familiar with I found a claim that they were "valued (at least initially) at 864 to the gold hyperpyron", so while one can't draw direct parallels across 1,000 years it seems like a Roman Semis, at 800 to an Aureus, though with the Aureus being heavier and finer maybe more like a Quadrans at 1,600/Aureus? That's some impressively small change!

 

This is an interesting thread - I thank you BenSi for creating it. This era of Byzantine coinage somewhat baffles me, and this was helpful.

A while back I obtained two half tetarterons in a lot and I found them to be more attractive in hand than I expected. My efforts at attributions are below the photo (corrections always welcome!)



Byzantine Empire
Manuel I Comnenus
(1143-1180 A.D.)
Æ Half Tetarteron
Greek Mint
Q / GE / O | [?], facing bust of St. George w. spear & shield / [MAN-DECP], facing bust of Manuel, labarum & globe.
SB 1980; BMC 78.
(2.54 grams / 17 mm)

Byzantine Empire
John II Comnenus
(1118-1143 A.D.)
Æ Half Tetarteron
Thessalonica Mint
IC-X[C], Christ nimbate, facing std. on footstool w. Gospels / +IW [DECPOT] facing bust John holding labarum & globe.
SB 1954; BMC 67-69.
(1.52 grams / 15 mm)

 

Not proven but surmised. We have no translated words to prove it. The billion Tetartera was valued higher than the regional one, that is because letters written mentioned the buying power of the coin in Constantinople and another letter with the buying power in Thessalonica, they were considerable different. To complicate matters they had the same name. In fact Before the coin reform of 1092 two other coins also had the same name, one of gold and another of silver.

The Metropolitan ( Constantinople) tetarteron of 1092 had silver in it From 4% ( Alexius I/ John II) down to 1% ( During the reign of Isaac II 1185-95 AD). Under the table you were looking at it was the equivalent of one Old Follis. They were worth 288 to the Hyperpyron ( Highest value gold.) The regional tetarteron was 864 to the Hyperpyron.

Now the problem with this is the lack of consistency with regional tetartera, I have issues made under Alexius the same coin but weights running from 1.3gm to 6gm , how were they counted? Same problem under John II ( His son.) Then under Manuel it gets clearer but still some issues. In some documents , they called the smaller coins obols , but those documents were written after the time period.

The most interesting problem with these coins is the trachy and the tetarteron did not cocirculate, the regional tetartera was used in Greece and the trachy was used in Asia Minor and in Bulgaria, the only place All of the denominations circulated together was in the city of Constantinople. The trachea was valued higher than the tetarteron so how did people pay for smaller valued items?

Lots of unknowns here.

I agree with you attributions, nice condition especially for the half tetartera @Marsyas Mike

 

Sorry I missed answering this question. Constantinople only for the Metropolitan issues and the regional ones were in Thessalonica and perhaps other regional mints, Athens and Corinth are possibilities and I personally believe in Cyprus ( At least during the rule of Alexius I)

 

I'm sure it can be maddening to some individuals to have so much remain unknown and ambiguous, but mysteries have always been personally attractive because within uncharted territory lurks the possibility for new discoveries and important scholarship. Thanks for the lessons in this arcane (to me) realm, I've got a glimpse now of how it would be a truly fruitful and rewarding focus. Having to dig in medieval correspondence for clues about purchasing power sounds like fun. I hope you can eventually nail-down a Cypriot mint with certainty.

 

Very nice catch BenSi. I have trachy of Manuel:

 

@gogili1977 Both nice ones, I just started expanding my collection to include trachea, I decided to finish John II first.
Last night I was reading a good article on why the were thought to be made concaved. It was worth the read.

https://www.academia.edu/37655582/W...ge_Turn_Concave_Old_Suggestions_and_a_New_One

Here is one of my John II, S-1944

 

Love this find, and thanks for sharing some history

 

Congrats on the amazing find @BenSi it is a wonderful coin.