Kirmaneuli Tetri - Manuel I Imitation Western Georgia

Manuel I Comnenus issued his own tetri coinage for Trebizond in the mid-twelfth century, and Georgian workshops almost immediately began producing imitative strikes — a practice that reflected less counterfeiting in any modern legal sense than the simple commercial reality that Trapezuntine silver circulated freely along the eastern Black Sea trade routes into Colchis. Western Georgia, relatively isolated from the Tbilisi-centered monetary administration, relied heavily on such imitations to meet local demand.

Bennett's attribution distinguishes these Kirmaneuli pieces from the Trapezuntine prototypes primarily through subtle metrology and die execution rather than type.