Featured The trouble with t̶r̶i̶b̶b̶l̶e̶s̶ trachys

Thanks @BenSi!

 

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He was a miserable emperor but I really like his coins ,Alexius III that is , the saint next to him is Saint Constantine founder of Constantinople. etc. etc.
Here is one of my favorites. I have shown it before but ,,, What the heck.

 

I just got my first Alexius III last month - not as nice as BenSi's, but it is my only one. It came in a Littleton flip, which is what I based my attribution on (corrections always welcome):

Alexius III Angelus-Comnenus
Æ Trachy
(1195-1203 A.D.)
Constantinople Mint
KE RO[HQEI], [IC]-XC, bust of Christ facing holding scroll / [ALEZIW DECP TW KOM]NHNW Alexius & St Constantine holding labarum & cross on globe
SB 2013; BMC 20ff.
(2.80 grams / 26 x 23 mm)

 

Who's this guy and where was this silly thing struck?

 

Michael VIII Palaeologus. Thessalonica mint.
SBCV 2303 , DOC vol.V.169-170 , Gr 1377, PCPC 76 .

 

Manuel, SBCV-1966 with a star in the Field.

 

Good job, SBCV was my next source. Trachys can be trouble. Congrats.
Fun coin for all of us to enjoy.

 

Okay, Trachys come in all sizes. This little fellow is interesting

15mm ( At widest point)

.7gm

Obv, Bust of Christ, Rev Warrior Saint, Michael or George or ...


Picture darkened for detail. Any ideas? I know it is post 1203ad but not too late.

 

Looks like clipped trachy Latin Rulers of Constantinople.
Facing bust of Christ, holding Gospels and raising right hand.
Archangel Michael standing facing, holding cross on globe.
SBCV 2036

 

Thanks for this, Quant.Geek. I've never seen any description of how they were struck ...at all, never mind remotely as cogent as this.
I have a few, but I doubt there are any good pictures. ...Wait, in a couple of instances, the field legends were major selling points. Have to look around, and maybe come back here.
...Your examples are top drawer, incidentally.

 

Trachy's is indeed a challenge. When you get a well struck one it is a real treasure.
Here is a Bulgarian imitation that I had to have. They are hard to find this nice. I have some that probably went through a fire.

 

OOPS, A Gig OOps; Here is the coin I forgot to attach. The mind is a terrible thing to loose.

 

Beautiful portrait on the obverse @Black Friar , it is a different look for Mary.

Here is one I purchased a decade ago. It was miss attributed as an Alexius III, it is not.

I loved the white metal. I always had the feeling their was some very different about this coin.
2.258g, 27.2mm,

 

...After one guess, I'm going to give up. Is this one Constantine III?

 

VD76, that was my first guess. ...Based more on the limitations of my acquaintance with the series, than its extent. But I for one have never seen that kind clipping except in the case of later Latin (/'reduced') issues.
Someone who actually knows what they're talking about should weigh in here!

 

S.2144 of Theodore II or S.2110 of John III - depending on whether you see "OEmmanouhl" (or something like it) on the obverse.

Anyway, that's how Hendy (or was it Bendall?) allocated these two types - but the ruler's name is never clear so who knows whether they were right.

Ross G.

 

16 mm/ 0.55 g.

 

I never realized that there was a second coin it could be, I always thought it was SBCV-2110 Thank you for pointing that out Ross.

 

From here, the only example whose .jpgs aren't hiding is this one. It's of John of Nicea, a contemporary of Jean de Brienne's tenure in Latin Constantinople. But even in this instance, the legends in the fields really count. On the right, concave (/'reverse;' more consistently secular) side, the left field could be read --even by someone as illiterate as me-- as 'IWVOI;' something approaching the contemporaneous Greek for 'JONOI.' ...Is this the purest wishful thinking? I'd be glad of anyone's help.

 

...Found the trachy pics that were sitting around; they were badly labelled. Here's my Isaak II. Bought for how much of the field legend there is. Right, along the lines of "ISAAKIOS DESPOTH."