Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1870. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NICEPHORUS II Phocas. 963-969 AD. AV Histamenon Nomisma (4.45 gm, 6h). Constantinople mint. Facing bust of Christ; two pellets in arms of nimbate cross / Facing busts of the Virgin and Nicephorus, holding patriarchal cross between. DOC III 4; SB 1778. Good VF. ($500)

Nicephorus II introduced the first change in the Romano-Byzantine gold coinage system since the introduction of the solidus by Constantine over 600 years before. He produced two gold coins, of identical type, one the traditional solidus, now termed the histamenon ("isthmi"-"set up" to the traditional weight) and a new denomination, the tetarteron ("tetartron"-less a "quarter" of a tremissis in weight). Explanations vary, but the introduction of the new denomination may have simply been an accounting ploy; taxes had to be paid in histamena, disbursements were paid out in tetartera. The confusion wrought by this plan soon forced a change in the types of the tetarteron, which nonetheless remained in use until Alexius I reformed the coinage again in 1092.