Trachy - John III Doukas-Vatatzes

John III ruled Nicaea from 1221 to 1254, presiding over the most administratively coherent of the Byzantine successor states that emerged after the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople in 1204. His reign saw genuine fiscal consolidation — he reportedly banned the import of foreign luxury goods to protect domestic producers — and his coinage reflects a functioning, if reduced, imperial economy rather than a desperate one. The billon trachy denomination had been debased so aggressively by late Komnenian and Angeloi rulers that Nicaean issues of this type represent a modest stabilization rather than a continuation of decline.