346, Lot: 563. Estimate $300. Sold for $340. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Manuel II Palaeologus. 1391-1425. AR Stavraton (24mm, 7.09 g, 6h). Light (Class II) coinage. Imperial (Constantinople) mint. Struck 1403-1425. Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator; barred IC XC across field; sigla: pellet above M | pellet above K / Crowned facing bust of Manuel; sigla: pellet | pellet. DOC 1397 var. (obv. sigla reversed); Bendall 332, unlisted sigla; SB 2549. Near EF, lightly toned, areas of weak strike.

Entering her final phase near the closing decade of the 14th century, the Byzantine empire was a dying state with a history connected to that of Rome and dating back for more than a millennium. Upon the formal coronation of Manuel II in 1392, the downfall of the empire at hands of the Turks, omnipresent in the affairs of the region, seemed imminent. Manuel’s able ruling, however, allowed the empire to continue along, though her lack of military and financial resources prevented the Palaeologan emperor from capitalizing on the important defeat of Bayezid at Ankara in 1402. Nevertheless, Manuel spent nearly four years during that time travelling Europe in search of aid for his cause, leaving his nephew, John VII, in Constantinople as his regent from 1399-1403. Upon his return to the capital, Manuel made John, who would predecease him in 1408, the ‘King of All Thessaly’ (βασιλεὺς πάσης Θεσσαλίας). Declining in health as he entered his seventies, Manuel associated his eldest son, John VIII, as his co-emperor in 1421 and, following a stroke the next year, was forced to relinquish effective rule until his death in 1425.

Having a great number of assets toward ruling, such as education, intelligence, and good soldiering, John VIII was quite possibly ahead of his time, though not well-suited for the constraints which faced the empire upon his accession. A series of misfortunes and miscalculations beset him---the loss of Thessalonica once again to the Turks, his theological concessions to Pope Eugenius IV, and the Turkish breaching of the walls of the Hexamilion, thus devastating the Morea. His rendition is famous even today, as Pisanello’s fantastic medal of him remains as an iconic piece and a gateway to modern numismatic ephemera, as it is the first portrait medal of the Italian Renaissance. This lavish imagery, however, was not with him at his death, as the Church itself refused him the last rites, dying unable to produce an heir. His successor, Constantine XI, was his younger brother and an unfortunate player in the script, as the empire was in its final act. Religious unrest within the state was at a highpoint, and Mehmed II, his Turkish counterpart, made it no secret that he intended to take Constantinople, along the remainder of the empire, once and for all. A siege of the city was begun on 5 April 1453 and, seven weeks later, proved successful in finally defeating the once-powerful state. Constantine himself, having shed his imperial regalia in favor of less conspicuous attire, died fighting as a common soldier.

Though successful in at least keeping the empire fledgling for roughly another 60 years, Manuel was that much more revolutionary in his monetary reforms which he established around 1394/5. These changes included a reduction in weight of the Stavraton (along with its respective fractions), as well as a coordination of the main design elements which were to remain virtually unchanged throughout the remainder of the empire. Additionally, he increased the output of the Half Stavrata so that they would vie with the full Stavrata themselves for the primary silver coin circulating in the empire. This system was left unchanged during the brief regency of John VII, and was continued, though obviously in smaller numbers and in increasingly cruder style, under the reigns of John VIII and Constantine XI. This silver series, with its high degree of sigla combinations and legend varieties presents the collector of the medieval period a great number of collecting aspects. Additionally, this rich historical tapestry, which dates back to end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the great empire that was to be the Rome of Augustus, connects itself to the expanse of Christianity, a focus on the east, and the opulence of Constantinople, only to find the new Rome herself under siege 1100 years after her founding and closing out the once powerful Romano-Byzantine empire in a very sobering downfall, reminding the collector that time will reign in even the mightiest of powers, no matter the expanse at their zenith.