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Basilikon - John VI Kantakouzenos
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
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| Year | 1353-1354 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of Christ Pantokrator within a beaded inner circle, depicted nimbed and wearing imperial robes, right hand raised in benediction and left hand holding the Gospels. The bust is framed by a dotted border, with the abbreviated Greek inscription IC XC (Iesous Christos) divided to either side of the nimbus. The design is executed in the late Byzantine hammered style, with flat relief and an irregular flan characteristic of the period. |
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| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
John VI Kantakouzenos struck this issue during one of the most fractured episodes in Byzantine monetary history — a civil war against John V Palaiologos that had already consumed the empire for nearly a decade before this coin was produced. His reign as sole emperor lasted barely a year before he abdicated in 1354, largely because an Ottoman force under Suleyman Pasha had just seized Gallipoli, permanently establishing a Turkish foothold in Europe. Kantakouzenos, who had invited the Ottomans as allies against his rivals, never recovered politically from that consequence.