Byzantine Cup Coin, Medieval Crusades, 23-25mm, 12th-14th Cent AD, Trachy

Description

BYZANTINE CUP (Trachy) COINS
After many waves of “barbarian incursions and threats on many of her borders, the Western Roman Empire, with its capital of Rome, finally collapsed in the fifth century.  The Eastern Roman Empire with its capital Constantinople, continued for another thousand years until about 1453.  This era of Roman history is called the Byzantine era.  The coins featured here, among many other types of coins, were very different from those struck during Rome’s Imperial period.  They are the famous “cup” or
trachy
coins.  They are odd shaped coins looking like they could have been formed by taking a normal coin, putting it between your first two fingers, and then pushing thumb into the center of the coin.  They were stuck during the 11th-14th centuries.
Nobody is certain why they were made in this shape, but probably were made that way to reduce counterfeiting.  Many of these are made of a mixture of copper and billon. Billon is very debased silver, sometimes about 20%, but most of the time the amount of silver was so small the coins would mainly look like copper or bronze.
Because of the shape of these coins, the picture inside the bowl gets less wear than the outside design. Many of these coins will have a picture of Christ wearing a halo (
nimbate
) on them on the outside side, or sometimes Mother Mary.  The inside usually had a depiction of the Emperor often with his Empress. The coin is 23-25 mm in diameter and weighs in at 2.51 gm.
As usual the pictures do not necessarily show off the coins in their entirety.
Let me know if you have questions.
Absolute Guarantee of Authenticity
I have collected Roman coins for many years and have always bought coins from trusted, reputable dealers. The coins I sell are ancient currency minted under the authority of the Roman and Byzantine Empires.  The details I describe (emperor, location, legends, etc) are derived from well-known and certified attribution sources.  The descriptions are guaranteed accurate as much as the condition of the coin allows.  This
Guarantee of Authenticity
does not make any claim or estimate of the value or grades of the coin(s).
ALL OF MY ITEMS COME WITH A GUARANTEE OF SATISFACTION , IF ANY ITEM IS NOT AS DESCRIBED IT CAN BE RETURNED IN ITS ORIGINAL CONDITION FOR A REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE.
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