Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 1401. Estimate $100.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $190. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BULGARIA, Second Empire. Ivan Stefan. 1330–1331. Æ Trachy (1.62 g, 6h). Large Šišman monogram / Ivan Stefan and Mihail II Šišman standing facing, holding cross-tipped scepter between them. Raduchev & Zhekov Type 1.12.1-2; Youroukova & Penchev 65-6. VF, green patina, light overall roughness.

Ivan Stefan was installed as Bulgarian emperor in 1330 on the death of Michael Asen III. Although Ivan Stefan was not a minor at the time of his accession, he seems to have been dominated by his mother Anna (Neda). The new regime was faced by an immediate crisis with the change in relations with the Byzantine Empire. A number of critical losses helped the opposition revolt, and Ivan Stefan was forced to flee Tarnovo together with his mother and brothers. The conspirators then placed Ivan Aleksander on the throne. Ivan Stefan and his mother fled to Serbia, but after the conclusion of an alliance between Serbia and the new emperor of Bulgaria in 1332 they moved to Dubrovnik. Anna (Neda) intrigued for restoration throughout the 1330s, but the revolt in her son's favor was crushed by 1337. Ivan Stefan died after 1343, and may have married an illegitimate daughter of the prince of Taranto. His brother Šišman sought support from the Mongols and from the Byzantine Empire, but his efforts also came to nothing.