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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David@PCC, post: 3072883, member: 80556&quot;]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&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>This map shows the height of the Byzantine empire during Justinian&#039;s time in contrast to the empire during John&#039;s rule below.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]772356[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]772357[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>This painting is said to represent John VIII and is located in Florence Italy.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]772358[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin will fit nicely with possibly one of the last coins minted by the Byzantines from another <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/trebizond.310658/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/trebizond.310658/">post</a>. Even though it is flat on the low points, I choose it because of how little wear it has, centering,&nbsp; and much of the inscription visible. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]772355[/ATTACH] </p><p>John VIII Palaeologus</p><p>Constantinople mint</p><p>1425-1448</p><p>AR Stavraton, 23x24mm, 7.08g</p><p>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.</p><p>DOC 1663-4; SB 2564</p><p><br /></p><p>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. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>References</p><p>Vagi, David. &quot;Most silver coins from Byzantine Constantinople’s mint are rarer than the empire’s other issues&quot;. Coin world, <a href="https://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/2016/12/rare-byzantine-silver-coins-ancients-today.2.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/2016/12/rare-byzantine-silver-coins-ancients-today.2.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/2016/12/rare-byzantine-silver-coins-ancients-today.2.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Wikipedia. <i>A political map of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in 1450.</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_revolt_of_1453%E2%80%931454#/media/File:Eastern_Mediterranean_1450.svg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_revolt_of_1453%E2%80%931454#/media/File:Eastern_Mediterranean_1450.svg" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_revolt_of_1453–1454#/media/File:Eastern_Mediterranean_1450.svg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Pile on your Byzantines.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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