Trachy - Andronikos III Palaiologos

Andronikos III claimed the throne after a prolonged civil war against his own grandfather, Andronikos II, a conflict that gutted Byzantine finances and left the mint producing debased, irregular coinage of diminishing weight and consistency. By his reign the trachy had collapsed so far from its 11th-century billon origins that copper issues like this one were essentially fiduciary tokens rather than intrinsically valued money. BCV 2484 specimens routinely show off-center strikes and irregular flans — a direct consequence of the manual production conditions at Constantinople during a period of severe institutional deterioration.