Trachy - Konstantin Tih I Asen

Konstantin Tih came to power through marriage into the Asen dynasty rather than by blood, a political reality that shaped his entire reign — he adopted the Asen name specifically to legitimize his rule. His decades on the throne were marked by repeated conflicts with the Byzantine Empire, Hungary, and the Mongol Golden Horde, the last of which inflicted a catastrophic defeat on Bulgarian forces at the Battle of the Ticha River around 1279, just after his reign ended. Copper trachea of this period circulated under severe economic strain, with the Bulgarian tsardom functioning largely in the shadow of Byzantine monetary conventions it could not fully replicate in metal quality or die precision.