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Aspron Trachy - Andronikos II and Michael IX
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1282-1328 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Scyphate (cup-shaped) flan in heavily worn condition. The concave obverse, consistent with late Palaeologan billon trachy coinage, retains only faint traces of design elements near the lower center of the field. The overall surface is heavily encrusted and darkened, making precise iconographic identification difficult. Based on the type, the obverse would typically depict the Virgin Mary orans, standing facing within a dotted or beaded border, with Greek legend flanking. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ΜΡ ΘΥ |
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| Additional information |
The joint reign of Andronikos II and Michael IX was marked by catastrophic military failure — most critically the mutiny and subsequent rampage of the Catalan Company, mercenaries hired to fight the Ottomans who turned on their employers and ravaged Thrace and Macedonia for years. The treasury was already gutted by Andronikos II's decision to disband the Byzantine navy in 1285 as a cost-cutting measure, a choice that proved ruinous within a generation.
By this period the aspron trachy had degraded so far from its 11th-century billon standard that contemporaries and modern analysts alike struggle to apply consistent metallurgical categories. SB 2360 falls into the final phase of a coinage system in managed collapse.