The Coinage of Trebizond Under Isaac II (A.D. 1185-95) : With A Note On An Unfinished Byzantine Die / Simon Bendall

THE
AMERICAN
NUMISMATIC
MUSEUM
SOCIETY
NOTES
24
THE
AMERICAN
NUMISMATIC
NEW
SOCIETY
YORK
1979
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THE
UNDER
ISAAC
ON
AN
COINAGE
II
(A.D.
OF
TREBIZOND
1185-95).
UNFINISHED
WITH
BYZANTINE
A NOTE
DIE1
Simon Bendall
(Plate 44)
In the NumismaticChroniclefor1977, the author publisheda series

of thirteenbronze coin types struckin Trebizondin the late eleventh
and early twelfthcenturies.2Most of the types are anonymous,althoughthreeor fourbear the name of Alexius. The author postulated
that the firsteight or nine issues were struck between ca. 1081 and
1091 whenthe citywas underimperialcontrol,whileissuesten to twelve
date to the period1091/2to 1098 whentheDuke of Trebizond,Theodore
Gabras, had made himselfindependentof the centralgovernment.
It may be consideredsurprisingthat a city on the very edge of the
empire,having only tenuous connectionsby land and sea with Constantinople,should have produced such a prolific,albeit today scarce,
coinage. However therecan be no doubt of the existenceof this mint;
it.
and internalcontentofthecoinageall confirm
provenance,overstrikes
The purposeof this articleis to put forwardtwo coins as issues of the
mintof Trebizondforthe reignof Isaac II.
The historyof Trebizond afterthe reign of Alexius I is ratherobscure.3 By 1119, ConstantineGabras was Duke of Chaldia following
1 Theresearch
on thecoinageofTrebizond
is authored
by SimonBendall.The
die is coauthored
noteon theunfinished
Byzantine
by SimonBendalland David
Sellwood.
2 S. Bendall,"TheMintofTrebizond
underAlexiusI and theGabrades,"
NC
1977,pp. 126-36,pls. 6-7.
3 W. Miller,Trebizond
, theLast GreekEmpire(Chicago,
1969);A. A. M. Bryer,
"AByzantine
c. 979-c.1653,"TheUniversity
ofBirmingham
Family:TheGabrades,
Historical
Journal
12 (1970),pp. 164-87.A. A. M. Bryer,
andD. M.
S. Fassoulakis
an Additional
Nicol,"A Byzantine
Note,"Byzantinoslavica
Family:TheGabrades,
36 (1975),pp. 38-45.
213
214
Simon Bendall
a successfulcareeras a generalunderAlexius I. The distancebetween

Trebizond and Constantinopleseems oftento have led the governors
of the provinceto assume moreindependencethan was allowed by the
Byzantine emperors. ConstantineGabras was no exception and in
1139/40John II was driven to set out on an expeditionagainst his
unrulygovernor.The expeditionwas a failure,however,and Constantine
Gabras seem?to have remainedindependentalthoughwe do not know
forhow long; the date of his death is also uncertain. By the mid-1160s
Chaldia was again part of the empire and NicephorusPalaeologus its
new Duke. It appears that the province remainedunder the control
of the emperoruntil the establishmentof the Empire of Trebizondby
Alexius Comnenusin 1204.
Much of the materialon whichthe articleconcerningthe coinage of
Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades was based came froma
large collectionof coins formedmany yearsago in Trebizondwhichthe
author had the good fortuneto examine. Most of the coins, some
hundreds,were of the Empire of Trebizond; about fortywere of the
Alexian period,whilethreecoins,whichfitinto neither
aforementioned
category,are the subject of this short article and describedbelow:
(Type 1) Obv.: [ MP ] 0V in upper field
Virgin,nimbate,wearingtunic and maphorion,seated
upon thronewith back; holds beardless,nimbatehead
of Christon breast.
Rev.: Legend illegible
Full-lengthfigureof emperorwearingstemma,divitision, collar-piecewith six jewels, jewelled loros with
waist D, and sagion; holds in r. hand, scepter cruciger, in 1., anexikakia. Manus Dei in upper r. field.
a) 4.65 (Plate 44, 1)
b) 4.39
(Type 2) Obu.: [0KGRO] H0I around; [ MP ] 0V in field
Full lengthfigureof Virgin,nimbate,orans, standing
on dais, wearingtunic and maphorion;nimbate head
of Christon breast.
Rev.: As type 1.
5.70 (Plate 44, 2)
Coinage of Trebizond
215
As can be seen fromthe illustrations,these coins are struckon polygonal flans,having betweeneight and ten sides. The thicknessof the
flans,between1.0 and 1.2 mm,is considerablygreaterthan that of the
trachea. The lattergenerallyvary betweenca. 0.6
Constantinopolitan
and 1.00 mm,oftenon the same coinwhilethethicknessoftheTrebizond
coins is more regular. The weightsof the two types are considerably
heavier than the Constantinopolitancoins recorded by Hendy4- the
heaviest by 1.2 gramsmorethan Hendy's heaviest. While threecoins
numberon which to base firmconclusions,
are not perhapsa sufficient
theiraverage weightis 4.91 gramsagainst an average of 3.47 gramsof
the 12 coinslistedby Hendy. It seemsprobablealso that the new coins
are pure copper and contain no silver as do the Constantinopolitan
issues.
tracheabut Type 2
Type 1 is an exact copy of the Constantinopolitan
has a completelydifferentobverse which seems to have been copied
fromIsaac's tetarteron.5The style of both types is very precise,with
many details finerthan on the Constantinopolitancoins.
There can be no doubt that the coins describedhere were struckin
Trebizond. Not only does the provenancepoint to this, but also the
polygonal clipped flans, completelyunlike those of the metropolitan
mint,are indistinguishablefromthe earliercoins of Trebizond (Plate
44, 3) although,of course,the two types under discussionare of scyphate form.
With the mint having been establishedas Trebizond,can there be
any doubt that Isaac II was the issuer of these coins? Historically,
thereis no problemin this attributionas at that timethe provincewas
under the controlof the centralgovernment.The problemwould be
to assign the coins to any other period. At Constantinoplethe alternativesto Isaac II would be Latin or Bulgarian,but these do not apply
at Trebizond. It is unlikelyin the extremethat Alexius III would have
issued the types of his predecessor. No coins are known of Alexius
Ill's successorAlexius Comnenus(1204-22) althoughif they do exist
they will undoubtedlybear his name for it is most unlikelythat the
4 M. F. Hendy,Coinage
andMoneyin theByzantine
, Dum, 1081-1261
Empire
bartonOaksStudies12 (Washington,
D.G.,1969),p. 419.
6 Hendy(above,n. 4), pl. 21,8-9.
216
Simon Bend all
founderof an empirewould not have advertisedhimself. There are,

however,two types known forthe next emperorAndronicusI (122235).6
While thereis a certainsimilarityin style,especiallyin the obverses,
betweenthe coins of Isaac and of Andronicus7the formof the flans,
theirweightsand thicknessare quite dissimilar. The formerlook back
to earlierformsofthe twelfthcenturywhilethelatterare based uponthe
Latin coinage.
nearlycontemporary
In conclusion,it seems clear fromthis reviewthat thesetwo typesin
the name of Isaac II can belong to no otherperiod than the reignof
Isaac II and the mintof Trebizond.
A NOTE ON AN UNFINISHED
BYZANTINE DIE
The method of productionof dies can often be inferredfrom an

inspectionof the coins which were struck by them. It is however
veryunusual to come across a specimenemanatingfroma substantially
incompletedie.8
The trachydealt withhereis in the collectionof the AmericanNumismatic Society. The issue is an electrumaspron trachy (Var. B)9 of
Isaac II struckat the mintof Constantinople.
The scyphatetype of flan,so characteristicof Byzantine coinage of
thisperiod,musthave giventhe die engraversmanyproblems,not least
that of cuttingthe appropriatedesignson a curved surface. Here the
figureof the Virgin,which has only a tentative outline, appears, as
usual, on the convex face; the latter of course had been impressedby
that two skewimpressions
the convexdie. It has recentlybeen argued10
6 D. M. Metcalf
I
and I. T. Roper,"A HoardofCopperTracheaofAndronicus
and
NCirc83 (June1975),pp.237-38,andA. Veglery
ofTrebizond
(1222-1235),"
NCirc
A. Millas,"CopperCoinsofAndronicus
Gidon(1222-1235),"
I, Comnenus
85 (Nov.1977),pp. 487-88.
7 Compare
theobverses
ofPlate44,nos.1 and4.
8 Previously
on dieswereknownto theauthors,
the
minoromissions
most
only
the
II and MichaelIX wherethepelletsoutlining
suchas thecoinofAndronicus
obverse
werenotconnected
(BMCByz.2, p. 629,no.36).
inscription
9 Hendy(above,n. 4), pl. 20,7-8.
10S. Bendalland D. Sellwood,
CoinsUsing
"TheMethodof Striking
Scyphate
Two ObverseDies,"NC 1978,pp. 93-104.
Coinage of Trebizond
217
of the upper die, the one in questionhere,were requiredto obtain anything like a full coverage of the designsof both obverse and reverse.
Such a sequence would account forthe apparent double-striking
to be
seen on our coin, particularlyat the shin-bone,at the vertical axial
line over the heartpositionat the (viewer's)rightshoulderand, finally,
at two o'clock on the nimbus. Hence we should discountmuch of what
seems to be a verysketchyoutlineof the design. Instead, referenceto
the areas wherethereis no overlap of impressions,e.g. the two parallel
verticallines representing
the bottomof the cloak at the right,demonstratesa secureenoughtouch.
Nevertheless,when set against the much more sophisticatedfigures
on the other side of the coin, the discrepancyin artisticskill needs
explanation. How would the thick centralline on the Virgin'sface be
into an acceptable nose, mouth and chin? In fact, on a
transformed
finisheddie, muchof thisarea would requirefurtherexcavationto give
the sortof reliefcharacterizing
the faces of the two saints. So what we
have is merelyan intermediatestage beforethe chiefcraftsmangets
to work. We know that forsome of the earliermachinemade coinages
certainessentialpartsof the designwereinsertedon the die by a master
punch and that details were added afterward. A similarprocess may
have occurredforthe Byzantineseries. A hub was employedto ensure
that the major elementswere correctlypositionedvis--visthe curved
surfaceof the blank die. This would thenbe workedover withscorpers
and centerpunchesto obtain the sharp outlinesof the figure,the decorationson the dress,etc.
However,forthe die in question,only the outer dotted circleof this
second stage was completedand the embryonicdie was then thrust
beforeits time underthe striker'shammer.
Plate
44
Coinage
^
of Trebizond
f-JSSE^SSb^
Unfinished Byzantine Die

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THE

In the NumismaticChroniclefor1977, the author publisheda series

a successfulcareeras a generalunderAlexius I. The distancebetween

Simon Bend all

founderof an empirewould not have advertisedhimself. There are,

The method of productionof dies can often be inferredfrom an

Unfinished Byzantine Die

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