I had coin club tonight, I stole this coin, in the back of my mind was Medman thread going back with more money..I asked this member three times on the price, he said he would make plenty of money..1st of 4 coins.. Byzantine Empire.. Michael Vll ..1071 - 1078..AD.. A/ Histamenon Nomisma Seyphate Ob. Bust of Christ facing, holding 4 Gospels hand raised in Benediction.. Rev. + Mixahn Racia bust facing.. bearded, wearing crown, holding loro's and labarum. Some lite scratches.. 29mm x 4.36g.
Eng now I am mad! How could you just go get an ancient gold coin before me?! The busts are sooo nice! That is just ridiculous, puts my Byzantine coins to shame. Holy Smokes!!!
Thanks you guy's, this is one coin that was on my bucket list..they seem to be very pricey in any condition. Not only it's got great details, i picked this up for a bottom feeder price..:yes:
When you get a great ancient coin, is nice. When you get a gold ancient coin, its really nice, but when you get an ancient gold coin at a bottom feeder price, now thats something special.
I was also going to blow this open for you. If the coin is cup-shaped, then it is not Gold! Its electrum. A "flat" coin would indicate a pure composition, if the coin is scyphate then that would indicate the coin is debased and is therefore electrum. (Gold/Silver) or later Gold and Bronze. I think you have a very nice Electrum piece here. The composition does not at all take away from the coin. It is still probably 14-18 karats. Kudos. I was having problems getting back into the thread but it looks like Peter took care of it... Thanks Peter!!! I really love this coin, it is probably my favorite in your collection. Nice job, bro.
Is that true? I really do not think it is. The Byzantines simply switched to the scyphate form for whatever reason around the early 11th century. Debasement did not start until well after the disaster at Manzikert. So while there might be SOMEWHAT a correlation between the two things, (scyphate form and debasement), they are not a 1-1 relationship.