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Message:: [QUOTE="BenSi, post: 25925121, member: 95174"]Good Morning [USER=92212]@philologus_1[/USER], All three of you coins are very nice examples and yes your SBCV-1932 is a half tetarteron not a full. However, you are not alone in thinking it was a full tetarteron, the authors of CLBC Marchev and Watcher thought it was a full but Micheal Hendy did not and I agree with him. CLBC made the decision based on die size, However I have 18 examples (I eliminated 2 because they might be contemporary imitations or Medieval coins of the same type of design and did the same for questionable coins of the SBCV-1931 in OP ,They did not lower the weights just the design was off on the cross.) Most of non-eliminated coins were under two gm and all over 1gm. DOC  IV lists 42 examples with weights ranging from .59gm to 3.22gm and sizes ranging from 13mm to 18mm I have not checked the dies but I do not expect changes in size, but Michael Hendy included the Contemporary imitation's, those coins were made long after the death of Alexius, they were proven after DOVC IV was written to be made in the 13th century, this information came from hoard finds buried after the Latin rule. At this point some of these coins may have been made in the 14th century, that's not proven yet.  Now no coin listed as a half tetarteron is actually half, more like two thirds of the weight, not sure why but they are called half's. Now your coin is very desirable because it has all 4 letters on the cross, most do not, here is my favorite. [ATTACH=full]1650486[/ATTACH] As for imitations. [ATTACH=full]1650487[/ATTACH] 1932D ALEXIUS AE HALF TETARTERON S-1932 DOC 45 CLBC 2.4.8 IMITATIONOBV Patriarchal cross on two steps. REV Bust of emperor wearing stemma divitision and jeweled loros and in r. hand holding jeweled scepter and in l. Globus cruciger. Size 15.59mm Weight .6 gm I have been studying these coins of the Alexius reform for over 20 years, the coins are listed as from an unknown mint, I have always thought the legit examples came from Thessalonica, the imitations from elsewhere. Imitated coins are always the easiest designs to duplicate. As for my Thessalonica theory on the legit issues they are finding so many examples while the build the new Metro system there that it is looking like that is their main mint area.[/QUOTE]

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