Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 1437. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $580. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BULGARIA, Second Empire. Ivan Šišman. 1371–1395. AR Half Grosh (0.60 g, 6h). Half-length facing bust of the Theotokos, orans, facing bust of Holy Infant on breast; [M Θ across field] / Half-length facing bust of Ivan Šišman, holding cross-tipped scepter; imperial monogram in left field, [imperial monograms] in right field. Raduchev & Zhekov Type 1.15.7-8; Youroukova & Penchev 124-5. EF, toned.

One of the sons of Ivan Aleksander and his second wife, Ivan Šišman was made co-emperor in 1356. After the death of his father in 1371, he succeeded to the central portion of Bulgaria with its capital Tarnovo, while his brother, Ivan Sratsimir, held the territory around Vidin, and Dobrotitsa / Dobrotici of Dobrudja carved out Karvuna as an independent region. Shortly after Ivan Šišman came to the throne, the Ottomans compelled him to recognize them as overlords and send his sister Thamar (Kera Tamara) as a bride for Sultan Murat I. In spite of this arrangement, the Ottomans conquered more territory. Encouraged by the Serbian and Bosnian victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Pločnik in 1387, Ivan Šišman attempted to break away from Turkish influence. The Ottoman reprisal was swift, and he was required to surrender another daughter, Drastar (Silistra), to the sultan. Though Ivan Šišman again tried to back out, Ottoman pressure forced him to comply, as well as surrender additional garrisons and other strategic fortresses.

Following the Christian defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottomans once again turned to Ivan Šišman. In 1393 the new sultan, Bayezid I, invaded Bulgaria and beseiged the capital, Tarnovo. After a three-month siege, the city fell on 17 July 1393, a date often taken as the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire, although both Ivan Šišman and Ivan Sratsimir survived. Ivan Šišman continued to rule in Nikopol as an Ottoman vassal, hoping for aid from the Hungarians, until he was beheaded there on the orders of Bayezid I on 3 June 1395. The remainder of Ivan Šišman’s territory was annexed into the Ottoman Empire, although Šišman’s son Konstantin II continued to rule at Vidin until 1422.