Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1136. Estimate $200.
Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.
Sold For $210. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee. |
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EMPIRE of TREBIZOND. John II. 1280-1297. AR Asper (2.75 g, 7h). Imitative issue. St. Eugenius, nimbate, standing facing, holding long cross with cross bar on shaft / John standing facing, holding lily-headed sceptre and globus cruciger. Cf. Retowski 16 (same obverse die); cf. SB 2609. Good VF, typical weak strike. ($200)
Retowski's aspers of his group B, section 1 have several anomalous features that set them apart from the normal series. On this one example, the cross held by St. Eugenius has a lower cross bar, not seen on any other example. Most of the Group B, 1 specimens have the saint's name ending in IO
V, rather than the IOC or IO seen on standard varieties. On the reverse the emperor's cloak is shown as a single cross-hatched panel lacking the normal decorated chlamys end tied around his waist. In addition, on this unique example the emperor holds a lily-headed sceptre, rather than one with a labarum as on every other type. The lily sceptre does not appear elsewhere in the Trebizond series, but does occasionally show as an attribute in the Bulgarian royal series. See a bronze of Mitso Asen (1256-1263), Radishev p. 93. This coin, and others in group B, 1 are probably imitative issues copying Trebizond types, and may have been struck anywhere along the north shore of the Black Sea, where the Tartar Khanates ruled, occasionally holding the Bulgarian kings as their vassals.
