At the beginning of the 13th century the greatest Christian city in the world, Constantinople, was taken over by the Latins, that is western Christians from Europe. Various smaller Bzantine kingdoms sprung up elsewhere such as Trebizond, Thessalonica and Nicea, each clustered around its named capital. John III Ducas (1222-1254), usually referred to as Vatatzes lead the Empire of Nicea. He had extraordinary luck combined with actual skill and conquered much territory in machinations with the Empire of Thessalonika, the Latins and the Bulgarians. Here is a Hyperpyron of John III Vatatzes. The dot slightly above the right arm of the throne (viewer's right) is a mint mark and those issues with this mark (there are others) have been analyzed as being 17 carats. On the obverse a poorly executed Christ is enthroned with his usual Greek identifiers IX XC. The well executed obverse features the emperor and various parts of his name (Ionnas) to his left, especially an omega. To the left of Mary who crowns John, various parts of the legend porphyrogennetos (born of the purple) is visible especially a phi and theta but other letters as well. His battles with the bulgars was helped enormously when the Bulgarian patriarch, king and his son all died. This was taken as the condemnation of God. John's successors were able to finally reconquer the great walled city of Constantinople.
Very nice coin @Gary Waddingham I really like it. The reverse has such great detail. I'll have to add a coin from the Empire of Nicaea to my collection one of these days.
A very nice example, with clear details on both sides, I love it! Here's the cheap AE version: Another interesting tidbit about this emperor is that he was epileptic.
