Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1217. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BASIL II and CONSTANTINE VIII. 976-1025 AD. AV Histamenon (4.37 gm). Constantinople mint. Struck 1005-1025 AD. +IhS XIS REX REGNANTInM, nimbate (plain cross arms with crescents in upper quarters) facing bust of Christ, holding Gospels / +bASIL C CONSTANT bA, crowned facing busts of Basil, wearing loros, and Constantine, wearing chlamys, holding cross (plain shaft) between them. DOC III 6a; BN AV/16; SB 1800. EF. ($750) P

Probably the most militant of Byzantine emperors, Basil never married, devoting his entire reign to conducting campaigns against Bulgarians, Fatimids, Georgians and the western principalites. At the battle of Kleidon in 1014 he acquired his nickname Bulgar-Slayer (Bulgaroktonos) when he captured and blinded 14,000 Bulgarians. The Bulgarian tsar Samuel died of despair when he saw what had been done to his men.