Catalog
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| Issuer | Tsardom of Vidin |
|---|---|
| Year | 1263-1275 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | Half-length frontal bust of Tsar Iakov Svetoslav in imperial regalia, wearing a loros decorated with pellets and a jewelled collar. The ruler holds a long spear in his right hand and a round shield in his left, conveying martial authority. The effigy is rendered in the Byzantine trachy tradition, with bold relief typical of Bulgarian provincial coinage of the mid-thirteenth century. |
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| Mintage | ND (1263-1275) |
| Additional information |
Iakov Svetoslav ruled Vidin as a semi-autonomous Bulgarian lord during a period when the Second Bulgarian Empire was fragmenting under Tatar pressure following the Mongol campaigns of the 1240s. His coinage — among the earliest identifiable issues from a Bulgarian regional lord rather than the imperial center at Tarnovo — reflects that fragmentation directly. The trachy form itself was borrowed from Byzantine prototypes that had been debased into copper across the Balkans as Constantinople's monetary authority collapsed after 1204.
Very few rulers of Vidin struck attributable coins, making Svetoslav's issues the primary numismatic evidence for the lordship's political pretensions during this decade.