Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1900. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GEORGIA, Imeret'i. Giorgi II. 1565-1585. AR Dram (1.34 g, 6h). Crowned facing bust of king, wreath around / "King Giorgi" in Georgian, wreath around. Kapanadze 131; Dobrovolsky 13; Lang p. 89. Good VF, weak strike, holed. Extremely rare, possibly the first example to appear in auction. ($1000)

Medieval Georgia disintegrated in the face of the assaults of Tamerlane, and after the death of Alexander I in 1443 the country splintered into a cluster of small principalities. Eastern K'art'li and Kakhet'i hosted feuding branches of the Bagratids, while in the west Imeret'i shrank further, losing the provinces of Abkhazia, Mingrelia, Guria and Samtskhe to rival petty lords and the Turks. Only a handful of coins have been attributed to these reduced principalities.