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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Only a Poor Old Man, post: 7285935, member: 111037&quot;]I was forced to abstain form Coin-Talk for the past 4 days. The first 3 were courtesy of my internet provider who decided to do network maintenance work in my area. As if that wasn&#039;t enough, when I finally got my net access back yesterday morning, I discovered to my horror that Coin-Talk was down. It took less than a week of abstinence to remind me that I am addicted to this hobby. Luckily, the postman made sure that I was right back on track by delivering something nice this morning. It is the latest addition to my collection, a gold hyperpyron of the runaway Byzantine empire of Nicaea. One of my collecting goals is to get all Byzantine gold types, so I am nearly there as I have solidi, histamena and now a hyperpyron. A tetarteron is next, however that is going to be a bit trickier both availability and budget wise.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275851[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Collectors familiar with these coins will instantly notice that this specimen is far from being a prime example of the type. The main problem is that it has been clipped to death. Almost a gram and a half of gold has been taken away by some greedy scoundrel who took advantage of the &#039;die to flan&#039; ratio of those cup-shaped coins. I bet that some unfortunate merchant unfamiliar with this issue got fleeced back in the day. Yes, it adds an interesting historical aspect to the coin, but I would have preferred it intact. Its current size is now almost identical to the older solidi, which perhaps was the intention of the tightwad miser that butchered my coin. The other issue is that the strike is somewhat weak on the obverse, but I guess it could be worse. The gold content should be around 18 carats according to my research. Nothing like the pureness of the solidi of the good old times, but a vast improvement to the heavily debased &#039;gold&#039; histamena of the 11th century. After all, that is why it was called a &#039;Hyperpyron&#039; (super-refined) which was a marketing attempt to reinstate some confidence in Byzantine gold coinage. </p><p><br /></p><p>As far as this one is concerned, we should be happy that it has so much gold considering that for a Byzantine gold coin, it well... isn&#039;t really Byzantine as the empire technically didn&#039;t exist at that point thanks to the sacking of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. I am not going to add much detail regarding the hows and whys Constantinople was sacked (it has been done in other threads), I will just say that it was a rather impolite act. Luckily for the glorious Byzantines it wasn&#039;t a total disaster as a good number of high-ranking royals, clergy and other VIPs manage to flea in time and settled just a couple of hundred kilometres south of Constantinople in the region of Nicaea. This was conveniently called the &#039;Empire of Nicaea&#039; which was in effect a rump state leading the struggle for Byzantine liberation from the Latin oppressors. There were more such states, the empire of Thessalonica, the empire of Trebizond and the despotate of Epirus.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was founded by Theodore I Laskaris, the son in law of Alexios III Angelos. Its close proximity to the Latin territory is due to the fact that the Latins did not have the necessary cohesion and manpower to properly control and police their newly acquired Kingdom. As one would have expected, skirmishes were plentiful, and initially not that successful for Theodore. It was soon apparent that the liberation of Constantinople would not be easy or quick. There was even conflict with Trebizond as power was the main motivation for re-taking Constantinople rather than simple liberation. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1275852[/ATTACH] </p><p><i>John III, from History of John Zonaras - Wikimedia Commons</i></p><p><br /></p><p>My coin was minted during the times of John III Ducas-Vatatzes, who came from a military family. He was of no royal blood, but was selected by Theodore as the second husband for his daughter Irene Laskarina. He became heir to the throne because of the death of Adronikos Palaiologos, Irene&#039;s first husband. Such a weak lineage caused internal conflict and John had no choice but to violently suppress the opposition that was funded and supported by the Latins. After a shaky start,he managed to hold the reigns of the empire for the next 30 years. It was far from a peaceful reign as he was often in conflict not just with the Latins but also occasionally with the other successor states. He died in Nympaion in 1254 after doing all the groundwork for the imminent re-conquest of Constantinople by Nicaea. On top of his successful military and diplomatic strategies, John was a capable leader that re-established internal order and organisation and was also responsible for economic prosperity as my coin indicates. John was canonized as a saint by the Orthodox church 50 years after his death. His feast day is November the 4th and is a popular Greek saint even to this day.</p><p><br /></p><p>Show me your Byzantine rump states coins, or any other coins that had precious metal removed from them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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