This is one very tiny coin. One could easily blow it off the table with a fierce puff. Though not as tiny as some of the Greek Obols or English half pennies, it's still qualifies as "tiny enough." One wonders how ancients kept track of these and what one could purchase with this type. Bread? John II experienced surprisingly little drama during his 25 year reign. An arrow felled him while hunting, either directly or by poison or infection. The empire thus spared him mutilation, humiliation, grotesque execution, or being torn to bits by a frenzied mob. By comparison, even if he did die by infection, John II feels like one of the luckier Byzantine emperors in regards to how he departed this world. His sister, Anna Comnenus, heavily implied his "stupidity" in Book XIV of her Alexiad, written during the reign of John II's successor, Manuel I. She also apparently heavily resisted John II's accession following the death of their father, Alexius I. You have to love sibling rivalry. John II Comnenus (1118-1143), Æ Half Tetarteron; Thessalonica, c. 1137-1143(?); Obv: Christ Pantokrator standing facing on dais holding book of gospels, IC to right, XC to left; Rev: Legend obscured, facing bust of John II, holding labarum and globus cruciger; 16x14mm.,1.94g; DOC 16b, Sommer 60.15.2, Sear 1954
