Just added to my growing collection of Byzantine rulers (http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/grid31.php) Rasiel The year 1077 brought a new bout of political strife for beleaguered Byzantine emperor Michael VII. Late that year a general by the name of Nicephorus Bryennius, and almost simultaneously another, Nicephorus Botoniates, denounced the corruption in the capital and boasted they would claim the throne. With Bryennius approaching from the western edge of the capital and Botoniates the eastern flanks, Michael VII wisely decided his best chances of survival would be found in a speedy abdication. Meanwhile a third, Nicephorus Basilacius, observed from the comfort of his palace in Thessalonica the ongoing developments and announced his bid too. His plan evidently being that he would not immediately march to the front to give his enemies more time to exhaust themselves fighting each other to deliver a more certain victory. This, to his dismay, did not come to pass. Botoniates managed to enter the city as liberator and quickly rallied the support of the clergy and inhabitants alike to deal the opposing armies decisive blows. Bryennius and Basilacius were both captured and blinded which, considering the brutality of the times, was tantamount to a royal pardon. Minus their eyesight, the two would be allowed to retire in peace and even hold administrative positions afterwards. The battle of the three Nicephori thus came to an end. The coinage of this usurper ranks among the very rarest in the Byzantine corpus. Credit goes to noted luminaries in Byzantine numismatics Philip Grierson and Roger Bland who championed the idea that coins were indeed minted during this brief civil war. Grierson would be the first when he came across three otherwise anonymous folles which had fragmentary lettering that together unmistakably spelled out NIKHOFOROC. It was obviously quite disappointing that his discovery should ironically limit full attribution given that these three men shared that same name and that the key last part was in all cases illegible. Years later Bland struck gold when he came across a fourth which yielded a terminal "BAC". From this he felt confident in assigning the identity to Basilacius while noting in passing the disclaimer that alternate interpretations may yet be valid. Unfortunately, this latest find, as can be seen here clearly, substantially weakens this position now that a fuller name of BACΛЄ is revealed. This is a strong indicator that BACIΛЄUC was the intended target, the Greek word for king and the common title in use by contemporary emperors. While this undeniably muddies the picture one can still make the case that among the contenders Basilacius was in a unique position to produce coinage given that he was the only one who enjoyed an urban setting with a working mint. On the other hand, the extreme crudity of the issues along with the fact that the majority are actually coins from earlier reigns that were simply re-stamped belies the argument that sophisticated facilities were needed to make these things in the first place. There is, in fact, no way to eliminate Nicephorus Botoniates himself, or even the slightly later Nicephorus Melissenus, from being the true authors of this brief series since it's plausible that in all five cases the early days of their insurrections were equally affected with both uncertainty for the outcome of their cause and the simultaneous need to make coinage - any coinage - that could do its part in lending a bit of legitimacy to their cause. Regardless, this piece is an important piece in a puzzle that has remained elusive for the better part of half a century. All told, with only about a dozen or so now known, this coin is undeniably the finest specimen with its nearly completely preserved obverse legend.
These used to be much scarcer, I see about 10 a year for sale. I picked mine up for $88. SB 1890 is much harder to find in my opinion. Did a write up on this one here.
There weren't enough Byzantine specialists looking at AMCC 1 with the result that someone got a great deal on this Basilacius SB 1890:
