“Stellati” Histamenon

219, Lot: 486. Estimate $150. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine IX Monomachus. 1042-1055. AV Histamenon Nomisma (27mm, 4.38 g, 5h). Constantinople mint. Struck 1054-1055. Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator / Crowned facing bust of Constantine, holding globus cruciger and sword; two stars flanking crown. DOC 4; SB 1831. Good VF, bent flan. Rare.

From the Jörg Müller Collection.

The meaning of the stars that appear on these rare histamena flanking the imperial bust has been a matter of much scholarly speculation. Hendy (DOC III, p. 734) suggested that they represented the 1054 appearance of supernova SN 1054, a celestial event that was widely seen and recorded by Chinese, Japanese, and Arab astronomers, as well as the Mimbres and Anasazi in North America, and possibly in contemporary Irish chronicles. Visible even in daylight from when it first appeared in the constellation of Taurus on 4 July 1054 until it disappeared in April 1056, Grierson (DOC III, p. 736) concluded that it could not have escaped the notice of anyone interested in astronomy and “may conceivably have found its way onto the coins [since] the dates, at all events, seem to agree.”