My first Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine if you must) coin for the year

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by AussieCollector, Feb 4, 2021.

  1. AussieCollector

    AussieCollector Moderator Moderator

    Hi all

    I just picked up this lovely Eastern Roman Empire (... or... sigh... Byzantine) Aspron Trachy, at a decent price. Yes, it's a bit battered, but I don't mind that kind of thing.

    upload_2021-2-5_8-41-37.png

    Aspron Trachy
    Manuel I Comnenus, EL, Constantinople, circa AD 1143-1152.
    Obv: Bust of Christ Pantokrator facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels; O ЄM MA to left, N૪ HΛ to right, barred IC XC across upper fields / [MAN૪HΛ ΔЄCΠOTH]
    Rev: Manuel on left, standing facing holding labarum and anexikakia, being crowned by the Theotokos standing facing on right; [MH]P θV in upper central field. DOC 2b; Sear 1957. 2.50g, 31mm, 6h.
    Extremely Fine; some die shift, edge chipped.

    Post your Eastern Roman Empire Trachys!

    AC
     
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  3. Only a Poor Old Man

    Only a Poor Old Man Well-Known Member

    Good pick in a very competitive auction!

    Here is trachy of mine, with battle scars like yours :nurse:

    theo_combo2.jpg
     
    tibor, rrdenarius, octavius and 12 others like this.
  4. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    I mean, if you really can't stand calling it Byzantine....you can send it my way ;) I will happily call it Byzantine all day long :)

    We only have one trachy in our collection. Picked out of Harlan J. Berk "junk bin" at the last Baltimore Whitman show what seems like a lifetime ago. I've bid on several but have never had any luck.

    Empire Of Nicaea
    Theodore I Comnenus-Lascaris
    1208-1222
    Billon Trachy
    Obverse: IC-XC. Christ, bearded and nimbate, seated facing, holding book of gospels
    Reverse: Theodore, crowned, full length figure standing facing, wearing loros, holding cross-headed sceptre and akakia
    IMG-8190-removebg-preview.png
     
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  5. David@PCC

    David@PCC allcoinage.com

    Broken is the theme of the day!
    b279-1.jpg
    Alexius I/ Transitional
    AR Histamenon Nomisma
    1081 to 1082 AD
    Obvs: ::KЄRO ΛΛЄϞIω IC XC, Christ bearded and nimbate wearing tunic and kolobion. Holds gospels in left hand
    Revs: ·ΔIMITI ΔϵCΠTH, St. Demetrius standing 3/4 facing presenting labarum to Alexius which holds sword and grasps shaft of labarum.
    27x29mm, 4.17g.
    Thessalonica mint
    Ref: Sear 1904, DOC 4.1
    Note: Sear lists as "Extremely rare", chipped
     
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  6. AussieCollector

    AussieCollector Moderator Moderator

    Thanks @Only a Poor Old Man

    I low balled it, and got lucky methinks. Although, a lot of collectors don't like missing pieces of the coin.

    Lovely coin btw! I love 'Eastern Roman Empire in exile' coins ;)

    Here is mine:

    upload_2021-2-5_14-19-37.png
    John III Ducas (Vatatzes)
    Emperor of Nicaea, 1222-1254. AV Hyperpyron Nomisma (23.5mm, 3.50 g, 6h). Magnesia mint. Struck circa 1232-1254. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing / John standing facing, holding labarum in right hand and akakia in left, being crowned by the Virgin Mary. DOC 5; SB 2073


    Thanks for posting @furryfrog02

    Another lovely coin. You can call yours Byzantine if you like, but it knows it's Roman :D

    Broken coins have a certain charm don't they? Yours is lovely
     
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  7. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Nice "Eastern Roman" coin....
     
    AussieCollector likes this.
  8. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    Nice coins! Its really easy to differiant Byzantine from Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantine starts with Anastasius I 491-518AD ends with Mehmet II sacking Constantinople in 1453.
    Zeno/ Leontius I/ Marcian/ Basiliscus are Eastern Roman Emperors/ Usurpers.
    Here are one of each...even I got it wrong originally had my Anastasius labelled as "Eastern Roman Empire" now been corrected. IMG_1105.JPG IMG_1108.JPG IMG_1083.JPG IMG_1084.JPG
     
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  9. AussieCollector

    AussieCollector Moderator Moderator

    Lovely Solidi @panzerman !

    I do still need to get me an Anastasius solidus. It's on a very long list of wants :)

    As an aside, I can tell you it is anything but easy to determine when the ERE ended, and when Byzantine started.

    My position is that the Byzantine Empire never existed, because the term is a modern invention not used until a couple of hundred years ago. They called themselves Romans, and would have been referred to as such by the world at the time.

    Others hold similar positions to yourself. While others yet again hold anything in between, or even refer to the Ottomans!

    See this thread here:
    https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-last-of-the-romans.360191/
     
  10. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I would agree with you. For me the Roman Empire ended when Alaric I (Germanic King) sacked Rome. The other so called Western Roman Emperors where mere puppets to their German masters upto Romulus Augustalus in 476AD. The Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople would continue to 1453/ but had a few close calls when the Crusaders looted the capital, the Emperor fled to Nicea. Mercifully Mehmet II finished them off/ now its part of Turkey. However most historians have given them that awfull name, "Byzantine"
     
  11. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    ...In the interests of emphasizing the fact that @AussieCollector isn't just being a curmudgeon about this (...granted, Curmudgeon Spoken Here, Fluently!), the Seljuk Turks were still calling the European side of the Bosphorus 'Roman,' on the eve of the fall of Constantinople.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumelihisarı
    The term also memorably shows up on folles of Leo the Wise, as of the early 10th century.
    https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2129699
    ...In the latter instance, the linguistic dialectic is especially cool. 'Basilevs [Greek] Romeon.' Just on a linguistic level, you can get the gestalt of an effectively seamless continuity of these folks referring to themselves as Roman, but in contemporaneous Greek. ...Going back to, for one obvious collective instance, Roman Provincial coins.
     
  12. AussieCollector

    AussieCollector Moderator Moderator

    Curmudgeon???

    Hey, I may be crusty and old, but I will NOT STAND FOR ANYONE CALLING ME ILL TEMPERED! Oh... wait.... ;)

    In all seriousness, I find it fascinating that we (broadly speaking) still find ourselves - in this day and age - hanging onto erroneous terms and frameworks, while having all the information we need at our fingertips to make the correction.

    My journey on the subject has been interesting over the last 10 years, from barely knowing anything about Byzantium, to being floored that a 'rump state' of the Roman Empire continued for almost a thousand years after Rome fell, to slowly realising that they weren't Byzantines, and instead the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire.
     
  13. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..very nice 'cup' coin AC...i've nary a 'cup' yet in mein collection....but not from lack of bidding, but lack of bid amount...so far..:D
     
    +VGO.DVCKS likes this.
  14. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    ...Just, Clap Hands about Everything you said!
    ...In the interests of full disclosure, I'd really like @Only a Poor Old Man, just for one, to weigh in on this. --Nope, @Only a Poor Old Man (and the rest of you Deep "Byzantine" guys), that was only a friendly nudge!
     
  15. Only a Poor Old Man

    Only a Poor Old Man Well-Known Member

    Most certainly! I am willing to put an end to this debate once and for all, as it continuously troubles Historians and Coin-talk members alike... :bookworm:

    How about we just call them Greeks? After all, that's what they were... The Eastern Roman empire was a administrative continuation of the eastern part of the Roman empire, but the people, the language, and the territory were predominantly Greek.

    And to keep it coin-relevant, here is my other trachy:

    histacombo2.jpg
     
  16. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    They did indeed refer to themselves as "Greek".
    I will still call them Byzantine though ;)
     
  17. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    @furryfrog02, that's Totally legal, especially as long as you (or other parties, the present one emphatically included) acknowledge that, in a broader historiographical context, this kind of shorthand exists mainiy for our communal, as such very relative, inexorably revisionist convenience.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2021
  18. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    Thank you, @Only a Poor Old Man, for bringing me (for one) back to reality, just so far as the operant ethnic dynamics were (and are) concerned.
     
  19. AussieCollector

    AussieCollector Moderator Moderator

    I find this post far too sensible.

    NEVER!

    Lovely trachy though. Another one on my want list.
     
  20. BenSi

    BenSi Well-Known Member

    One that I just photographed. An acquisition from the beginning of the year. My lighting is off and I am trying to get better at capturing the beauty of gold coinage.

    b3.jpg
    ALEXIUS I COMNENUS (1081-1118) Hyperpyron.

    Obv: + KЄ ROHΘЄI / IC - XC.
    Christ Pantokrator seated facing on throne.

    Rev: Alexius standing facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; crowning manus Dei above, five small pellets in loros end.

    Sear 1924.

    Condition: Good very fine.

    Weight: 4.33 g.
    Diameter: 27 mm.
     
  21. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    That is a nice example!
     
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