Obolos 18

Latin Rulers of Constantinople, 1204-1261. Hyperpyron (Gold, 27 mm, 4.16 g), copying the hyperpyra of John III Ducas (Vatatzes) from Magnesia, probably struck under Baldwin II de Courtenay, c. 1240-1261. IC - XC Christ enthroned facing, nimbate, wearing tunic and colobion, raising his right hand in benediction and holding Book of Gospels in his left; trefoil of pellets above throne to right. Rev. Fragmentary legend. John, on the left, standing facing, wearing divitision and loros, holding anexikakia in his left hand and labarum in his right, crowned by the Virgin, nimbate and standing facing on the right; at sides of the Virgin's head, MP - ΘV. DOC 9c. Hendy pp. 250-4. Cf. Metcalf p. 229f. SB -, but cf. 2073 for the issue of John III that it copies. Coppery hue. Very fine.

From the Trausnitz Collection, ex Künker 41, 11 March 1998, 3124.

Contractual agreement between the Empire of Nikaia and the Latin Empire based in Constantinople disallowed each side from minting coin types of the other state. However, needing the facility for exchange that the Magnesian hyperpyra represented, the Latins broke the agreement. Thanks to the Florentine merchant Francesco Balducci Pegolotti's Practica della Mercaturia, written c. 1280, we can identify the coinage of the Latins. Pegolotti tells us the signum used by the Latins, as seen on this coin, is the group of three pellets on the left - that is, on the viewer's right - in the field above the throne. These were probably struck during the later half of the reign of Vatatzes, when Baldwin II de Courtenay ruled in Constantinople, the last Latin to do so, and are of a lower purity of gold than the official issues of Vatatzes (i.e., around 16 1/2 carats as opposed to 18 carats). Because of this lower purity owed to the high amount of copper in them, today as they did originally, the Latin hyperpyra in the name of John IIII frequently have a coppery toning or hue.