Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Cupreous - Mikhail III Shishman
| Issuer | Second Bulgarian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1323-1330 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.9 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Standing figure rendered in a crude, flat hammered style typical of late Second Bulgarian Empire coinage. The effigy appears to depict a robed figure, likely a royal or religious personage, facing forward in the field. The surface shows significant wear and corrosion consistent with the copper alloy composition and age of the issue. Cyrillic monogram letters are visible in the field, partially legible due to flan irregularity. The overall design is characteristic of the debased trachy coinage of Tsar Mikhail III Shishman. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mikhail III Shishman ruled during one of the more turbulent stretches of late Bulgarian imperial history, fighting simultaneously to hold off Serbian expansion under Stefan Dečanski and to manage fractious internal loyalties following the chaos of the Terter and Smilets dynasties. His reign ended at the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330, where Bulgarian forces were routed and Mikhail himself was mortally wounded — a defeat that effectively ended Bulgarian military primacy in the western Balkans for a generation.
Copper issues of the Second Empire are notoriously difficult to attribute with precision; die-cutting quality varied sharply across minting sites, and the absence of consistent mint organization under the Shishman rulers compounds the problem.