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Assarion - John V Palaiologos and Anna
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1354-1365 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Full-length frontal effigy of Empress Anna of Savoy in imperial dress, holding a scepter with a jeweled finial in the right hand. In the left field, a model of a walled city surmounted by a cross is depicted, a motif symbolic of imperial sovereignty and dynastic authority in late Byzantine numismatic iconography. Additional heraldic symbols, including a lis and star, appear in the left field, with a further symbol in the right field. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
John V's coinage from this period reflects the empire's near-total collapse as a monetary institution. By the mid-fourteenth century, Byzantium had been reduced to issuing copper at a weight fraction that would have been unrecognizable to earlier Byzantine minters, with gold hyperpyra effectively replaced in everyday commerce by Venetian and Genoese issues. The joint naming of Anna — his mother, the regent Anna of Savoy — situates this piece in the years following the devastating civil wars between John V and John VI Kantakouzenos, which had bankrupted the treasury and forced the empress to pawn the Byzantine crown jewels to Venice in 1343.