Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 1370. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BULGARIA, First Empire. Simeon I Veliki. 893-927. PB Seal (28mm, 20.84 g, 12h). Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator / Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator (?). Cf. Iordanov Type III.2Б, 40-1; cf. Youroukova & Penchev 8-9. VF.

By the beginning of the reign of Simeon I Veliki (893-927), the First Bulgarian Empire was poised to overtake the Byzantine Empire. Styling himself as a ruler on par with the Byzantine emperor, Simeon adopted the title "Tsar of the Bulgarians and Autocrat of the Greeks." Between 894 and 896 he defeated the Byzantines and their allies in the so-called "Trade War," and, at the Battle of Bulgarophygon, he brought an end to the war with a rout of the Byzantine army. Following the death of the Byzantine emperor Alexander in 913, Simeon once again invaded Byzantine territory, but halted his plans when he was offered official recognition of his full imperial title, and a marriage between his daughter and the infant emperor, Constantine VII. When the Byzantine court rejected the settlement, war was renewed. On 20 August 917 Simeon fought the Byzantines, devoid of any allies, at Anchialus. Simeon, however, was prevented from taking Constantinople, although the Bulgarians took control of the Balkans, with the exception of the Peloponnesus.