Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1722. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANDRONICUS II with MICHAEL IX. 1282-1328. AR Basilikon (1.64 gm). Constantinople mint. Struck 1295-1320. Christ enthroned facing / Andronicus and Michael standing facing, holding long cross between them. DOC V -; Bendall 133; SB 2401. VF, the top of the cross between the emperors has been deliberately scratched off. ($750)

This coin, with its defaced cross, may have been booty collected by the Turks after their victory over Michael IX in 1311. Michael IX, the son of Andronicus II, led the Byzantine armies to several humiliating defeats before being removed from command after a particularly severe loss to the Turks. In ill health all along, his death at the age of forty-three was hastened by grief over the murder of his son Manuel, who had been caught up in an obscure dispute with his impetuous older brother Andronicus III.