Imitating Basil II and Constantine VIII

228, Lot: 373. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA, Principality of Tmutarakan. Late 11th century. BI “Miliaresion” (20mm, 1.05 g). Cross-crosslet with central X and crescent on shaft, flanked by crude crowned busts facing / Pseudo-legend, reduced to a series of dashes. Golenko 5. Fine

These crude coins imitate miliaresia of Basil II and Constantine VIII (cf. SB 1810). The earliest imitations, probably struck during or immediately after the striking of the prototype, were of reasonably good silver. By the middle of the 11th century, later derived copies become highly debased, in this case little more than bronze with perhaps a trace of silver.