Sale: Triton V, Lot: 2312. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MANUEL I. 1143-1180 AD. EL Aspron Trachy (3.94 gm). Struck 1152-1157(?) AD. Constantinople mint. Christ seated facing on bench throne, holding Gospels; IC XC to left and right / [MANWHL ÐECPOTH], Manuel and the Virgin standing facing, holding patriarchal cross between them; M Q by her head. DOC IV 3a; BN 3-5; Berk 353 (this coin); SB 1958. Choice EF, well centered and beautifully toned. ($500)

From the Jürgen K. Schmidt Collection. Ex Triton IV (5 December 2000), lot 872; "An Important Private Collection of Byzantine Coins" (Sotheby's, 2 November 1998), lot 578.

Manuel was the last strong Byzantine emperor to occupy the throne before Constantinople's surrender to the besieging Christian soldiers of the fourth Crusade. Manuel's military successes were many, but the empire was no longer the only power in the region. His conquests infringed on the interests of so many other groups that, instead of reviving the decaying empire, they hastened its decline.