Gold Hyperpyron - Isaak II Angelos

Isaak II came to power by killing the sitting emperor Andronikos I with his own hands in September 1185 — a mob had already torn Andronikos apart in the Hippodrome, but Isaak landed the final blow. His decade on the throne was defined by near-constant military crisis: the Bulgarians reasserted independence under the Asen brothers in 1185, and the Third Crusade's passage through Byzantine territory in 1189–90 nearly turned violent when Frederick Barbarossa threatened open war. The hyperpyron coinage of this reign reflects a treasury under sustained pressure, with gold fineness measurably declining from earlier Komnenian standards.