Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1668. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $1125. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NICEPHORUS II. 963-969 AD. AV Tetarteron (4.08 gm). Constantinople mint. Facing bust of Christ / Facing busts of the Virgin and Basil, holding patriarchal cross between them. DOC III 5; SB 1780. VF. Rare. ($600)

From the Charles E. Weber Collection. 

When Nicephorus introduced his reduced weight tetarteron alongside the normal histamenon (solidus) he created massive confusion among his people and later numismatists by keeping the same designs for each type. The present coin is one of the few we have handled that is clearly the smaller, rarer tetarteron, rather than a clipped histamenon.