Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 1361. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $380. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ALEXIUS III. 1195-1203. AV Hyperpyron (3.52 gm). Constantinople mint. Nimbate Christ standing facing on dais, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels / Alexius and St. Constantine standing facing, holding patriarchal cross between them. DOC IV 1b; SB 2008. Good VF, light graffiti. ($300)

The obverse is struck from two distinctly different half dies; one with quincunx in nimbus and jeweled dais, the other with plain nimbus and plain dais. See S. Bendall and D. Sellwood, "The Method of Striking Scyphate Coins Using Two Obverse Dies," NumChron 1978, pp. 93-104 for an explanation of this phenomenon.