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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BenSi, post: 3272327, member: 95174&quot;]Beautiful gift, congratulations. You asked for more examples of coinage minted during the crusades. This one like yours, was being circulated during the 1st crusade.</p><p><br /></p><p>This was thought to be the replacement for the follis because of its silver content.&nbsp; <u>It took 6 of these billion tetartera to buy one of your billion trachy.</u> However they only cocirculated in Constantinople itself. (Your coin was worth 18 of the normal tetartera.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I love this example the most, I have several but this one has the right combination of wear, patina and nicely struck.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]863306[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b> ALEXIUS METROPOLITAN TETARTERON S-1920 DOC 33 CLBC 2.4.1 Grierson 1042 </b></p><p><br /></p><p>OBV Bust of Christ, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion holding gospels (open) in left hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>REV Alexius bust facing wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece and paneled loros of simplified type and holds in r. hand labarum-headed scepter and in l. hand Globus crucifer. </p><p><br /></p><p>Metropolitan Issues were minted in Constantinople, each of these coins had an added silver content of 3% ( 3.84 is recorded by Hendy) and were also issued more than likely with a very light silver wash (Silver traces are common on Metropolitan issues but intact fully silvered coins are very rare.) These more than likely were tariffed at a higher rate than the Thessalonica issues that have been shown to have no silver content. This would make them a separate denomination. Metropolitan issues are in general far scarcer than the Thessalonica issues. Grierson thought them to be for ceremonial use only, I disagree, it was a denomination used in the Capital</p><p><br /></p><p>Size 19.56mm</p><p><br /></p><p>Weight 3.8gm</p><p><br /></p><p>DOC catalog lists 13 examples with weights ranging from 2.9 gm to 4.7 gm and size from 17mm to 21mm</p><p><br /></p><p>CLBC Lists weights from 2.93 to 4.80gm. Die Diameter 16mm[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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