174, Lot: 293. Estimate $100. Sold for $62. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Romanus I. 920-944. Æ Follis (28mm, 4.86 g). Constantinople mint. Struck 931-944. Half-length, crowned facing bust of Romanus I, holding transverse trefoil-tipped labarum sceptre and globus cruciger / Four-line legend. DOC III 25; SB 1760. Good VF, attractive dark green patina.

Romanus Lecapenus came to the attention of the imperial court during a successful career in the navy. Both his accomplishments and his daughter caught the eye of the emperor Constantine VII, who married the daughter and made the father co-emperor in 920. Within a few years Constantine found himself surrounded by Lecapenoi, as Romanus concentrated power in his own hands, raising his own sons Christopher, Stephen and Constantine to co-rulers and diluting the authority of the nominally senior emperor, to the point of striking coinage in his own name, without acknowledging Constantine. Even Constantine VII's own son was named Romanus! Constantine finally maneuvered to turn the family's own ambitions against them, encouraging the sons to oust the father in 944, and then deposing the sons the following year.