Aspron Trachy Hendy Type D

The Latin Empire's coinage was not a deliberate monetary program — it was improvisation. After the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204, the Frankish and Venetian occupiers inherited a Byzantine monetary system they barely understood and kept striking debased trachea largely because the infrastructure was already there. Hendy's Type D represents one of the earliest attempts to maintain Byzantine monetary forms under entirely alien administration.

The billon content was already in steep decline before the Latins arrived, a debasement trend the new rulers did nothing to reverse.