Michael VIII Palaeologus AV Hyperpyron. Magnesia mint, circa 1261.

The Virgin enthroned facing, holding the nimbate head of the infant Christ; throne back decorated with saltires & pellets

Michael standing facing, being presented by Saint Michael, who stands behind him, to Christ enthroned left holding scroll.

DOC V 1; Bendall 3A; SB 2241.

This important piece heralds the transition between the rump empire of Nicaea and the glorious restitution of Palaeologan rule at Constantinople by Michael VIII. His gold issue struck at Magnesia before the reconquest survives in possibly only one example, SB 2238 with Christ enthroned / Michael crowned by Christ. This second type, with the victorious Michael kneeling and offering prayers to Christ, is likely an allusion to his successful campaign to oust the Crusaders from the ancient capital. His last and most common hyperpyron type shows the Virgin within the walls of the city. Grierson suggests that the three varieties of this Type II hyperpyron, with saltires, B|B or K|K on the throne back, were struck at both Magnesia and Constantinople as the Byzantine court transfered to its ancestral home. The last two varieties refer to Basileus basilewn kai Kurios kuriwn — "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," a victory acclamation.

Coin from CNG coins, through Wildwinds. Used with permission.

Classical Numismatic Group, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following licenses:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue

	This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
	Attribution: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
	You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
	This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC BY-SA 3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Attribution:

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

You are free:

• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5CC BY-SA 2.5 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 truetrue

You may select the license of your choice.

This image has an extracted file: Hyperpyron-Michael VIII Paleologus-sb2241 (cropped).jpg.