Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 95

THE NEW YORK SALE

Byzantine Empire

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 1268		Justinian I. Gold Solidus (4.36 g), 527-565. Constantinople, 527-537. D N IVSTINI-ANVS PP AVC, helmeted and cuirassed bust of Justinian I facing slightly right, holding spear over shoulder and shield with horseman spearing an enemy below. Rev. VICTORI-A AVGGG, angel standing facing, holding long cross and globus cruciger; in right field, star; A//CONOB. (DOC 3d; MIBE 5; SB 137). Some luster remaining. Extremely fine. Estimate $500UP View details and enlarged photos	Realized $620
Lot 1269		Irene. Gold Solidus (3.76 g), 797-802. Syracuse, 798-802. [EI]-RIN bASILIS, crowned bust of Irene facing, wearing loros, holding globus cruciger and cross-tipped scepter; in left field, pellet. Rev. [EIRIN] bASIL[I]S, crowned bust of Irene facing, wear loros, holding globus cruciger and cross-tipped scepter; in left field, C; in field to right, I. (DOC -; Anastasi 455; Spahr -; SB -). Very rare. Mint state. Estimate $6,000UP Irene was a notable figure in early Byzantine history, and was the wife of Leo IV as well as the mother of Constantine VI. Although Leo was an increasingly intolerant iconoclast, Irene secretly venerated icons; according to tradition, when he discovered some of her icons she had concealed he reportedly refused to share the marriage bed with her thereafter. Nevertheless, when Leo died, Irene became regent for the young Constantine, and she used her authority to bring an end to the divisive iconoclast movement in the Byzantine Empire in 787, greatly improving relations with the Papacy and the Latin West. When Constantine VI came of age, Irene refused to give up her power and assumed the title of empress in her own right. However, in 802 she was overthrown in a palace coup and replaced on the throne by Nikephoros, her former minister of finance. Irene was exiled to Lesbos where she spent the single year that remained of her life spinning wool to support herself. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $6,490
Lot 1270		Irene. Gold Solidus (3.88g), 797-802. Syracuse, 798-802. [EI]-RIN bAS[ILIS], crowned bust of Irene facing, wearing loros, holding globus cruciger and cross-tipped scepter; in left field, pellet. Rev. [EIRIN] bASILIS, crowned bust of Irene facing, wear loros, holding globus cruciger and cross-tipped scepter; in left field, C; in field to right, I. (DOC -; Anastasi 455; Spahr -; SB -). Very rare. Choice very fine. Estimate $4,000UP View details and enlarged photos	Realized $3,658
Lot 1271		Theodora. Gold Histamenon Nomisma (4.30 g), 1055-1056. Constantinople. + IhS XIS Rex REG-NAntihm, Christ, nimbate, standing facing on footstool, wearing pallium and colobium, holding Book of Gospels with both hands; all within double border of dots. Rev. + EO PA AV OVCTA, Theodora, crowned and wearing loros, and the Virgin, nimbate and wearing pallium and maphorium, standing facing, holding between them a labarum; M- to sides of the Virgin. (DOC 1a; SB 1837). Rare. Extremely fine. Estimate $3,600UP In 1042 a popular uprising overthrew the Byzantine emperor Michael V and placed the leadership of the state in the hands of his exiled aunt, Zoe. Despite her popularity, however, Zoe was ill-equipped to rule, so the imperial court petitioned her estranged sister, Theodora, to share the reigns of power with her. Theodora attempted to escape this fate by entering a convent, but was forced to ascend the throne despite her hesitance. Their joint-reign was disastrous as the sisters' acrimonious relationship divided the court into two opposing factions. Zoe even went so far as to marry so that she could better negate Theodora's influence. When Zoe's husband, Constantine IX, lay dying in 1055 (Zoe had died five years before), the 75-year-old Theodora had herself proclaimed empress in her own right. Her sole-rule, during which this coin was struck, saw a purge of the army and officials who had previously showed preference for Zoe and an increased centralization of the imperial administration. Theodora's iron-willed period of autonomous rule did not last and she herself died on 31 August 1056. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $3,894
Lot 1272		Constantine XI Palaeologus. Silver ? Stavraton (0.55 g), 1448-1453. Constantinople. IC-XC across field, bust of Christ Pantocrator facing, holding Gospels. Rev. Crowned bust of Constantine XI facing; across field, sigla: ./K-T/_. (DOC 1789; cf. Bendall, "The Coinage of Constantine XI," RN (1991), 105-6 (unlisted sigla); LPC -; PCPC -; SB -). Lightly toned. Choice very fine. Estimate $2,500UP Ex Lanz 162 (6 June 2016), lot 437. Ex Roma XXII (28 November 2015), lot 839. The silver stavraton was introduced by John V Palaeologus in ca. 1367 to compete with Venetian silver in the tattered late Byzantine Empire. Its name, meaning "cross coin," has been variously attributed to the small crosses that introduce the Greek legends (a rare feature on Byzantine coinage) or to the presumed derivation of the denomination from the double gigliato of Naples, which featured a prominent cross design. Constantine XI, the issuer of this particular fractional eighth stavraton, was the last emperor of the Palaeologan dynasty and indeed the last man to rule the Byzantine Empire. He was killed while defending Constantinople against the final successful Ottoman assault of Mehmed II Fetih in April/May 1453. After his death and the fall of the city, Constantinople became the seat of the Ottoman Empire under the new name of Istanbul. In 1991 Simon Bendall published a hoard of 158 silver Palaeologan coins from John V (1354-1391) to Constantine XI (1448-1453). Until 1974 when two 1/2 stavrata were discovered the coinage of Constantine XI was unknown. The hoard that Bendall published added to the corpus a further five 1/2 stavrata, thirty-five stavrata, and fifty 1/8 stavrata, making the total known coins of Constantine XI just 92 of all denominations. Bendall argues that the 1/2 stavrata were probably struck in 1449 soon after Constantine was crowned emperor in Mistra, capital of Morea, where he had energetically served as despot before being nominated by his brother, John VIII, to succeed him, and the stavrata and 1/8 stavrata were only struck afterwards, during the siege of Constantinople. Using silver acquired from the churches in Constantinople, these 1/8 stavrata of Constantine XI were, according to Bendall, probably struck during the final siege of the city conducted by Mehmed II in 1453, and are thus the likeliest contenders for being the very last Byzantine coins. They were issued to pay Constantine's soldiers and mercenaries, and also the workers who rebuilt the city's walls each night after the previous days' bombardment from Mehmet's cannons. This particular coin, though not from the hoard documented by Bendall and from seemingly new dies and sigla, is a particularly fine specimen, in fact finer than most in the hoard, and has a crudely engraved but very clear and sharp portrait of the last Byzantine emperor. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $6,195