The Kingdom of Thessalonica was itself a product of the Fourth Crusade's chaotic division of Byzantine territory, established by Boniface of Montferrat in 1204 after he was passed over for the Latin emperorship in Constantinople. It lasted barely two decades before the Despotate of Epirus retook the city in 1224. Coinage from this rump state is consequently rare by default — the window of production was narrow, the political situation was permanently unstable, and the billon trachy fabric inherited from late Byzantine practice was already degraded well before Thessalonica began striking.
Hendy's typology remains the standard classification for this series, developed through his exhaustive work on the coinage of the Latin East.
The Kingdom of Thessalonica was itself a product of the Fourth Crusade's chaotic division of Byzantine territory, established by Boniface of Montferrat in 1204 after he was passed over for the Latin emperorship in Constantinople. It lasted barely two decades before the Despotate of Epirus retook the city in 1224. Coinage from this rump state is consequently rare by default — the window of production was narrow, the political situation was permanently unstable, and the billon trachy fabric inherited from late Byzantine practice was already degraded well before Thessalonica began striking.
Hendy's typology remains the standard classification for this series, developed through his exhaustive work on the coinage of the Latin East.