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Showcase Auction 61288 18 Sep 2022
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Nicephorus II Phocas (AD 963-969). AV histamenon nomisma (21mm, 4.35 gm, 5h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 4/5. Constantinople, AD 963-969. + IhS XIS RЄX' RЄΣNANTIhM, bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger with two pellets in each arm, pallium and colobium, raising right hand in benediction, book of Gospels cradled in left arm / + ΘЄOTOC' Ь' HΘ' hICHF' dЄSP', half-length facing busts of the nimbate Virgin Mary (on left), wearing stola and maphorium, and Nicephorus II (on right), wearing crown with pendilia, and loros, jointly holding patriarchal cross with pellet on shaft between them; barred M-Θ flanking Virgin. Sear 1778.
From the Historical Scholar Collection. Ex CNG 65 (8 June 2005), lot 1869
Nicephorus Phocas was one of Byzantium's greatest generals, and his long list of achievements forced even his enemies to concede his military ability. He was born into a prominent family of the dynatoi, the land-owning aristocracy of Asia Minor that held great influence from the early ninth century to the time of Manzikert. Before becoming emperor, he reconquered Crete with a massive armada of over 300 ships and 50,000 men. Even more impressive was his conquest and sack of Aleppo, the capital of Byzantium's most formidable enemy on the eastern frontier with the Islamic world. Nicephorus ascended to the throne in AD 963 by marrying Theophano, widow of his predecessor Romanus II.
It was a marriage that she had not wanted; the new emperor was strange, austere, and remote, and deeply religious to the point of startling self-punishment. He slept on the floor instead of a bed, allegedly on nothing but an extremely uncomfortable leopard-skin blanket, and he wore a shirt of his uncle's hair under his armor. He was also not the most handsome man, with the Italian bishop Liutprand of Cremona describing him as "a monstrosity of a man, fat-headed and like a mole... disgraced by an neck an inch long; one who it would not be pleasant to meet in the middle of the night." However odd his personal habits and unattractive his features, Nicephorus's military achievements continued as emperor, culminating in the dramatic conquest of the city of Antioch, the ancient capital of Syria and an important center of Christianity as the seat of a Patriarchate.
In addition to his military achievements, Nicephorus also initiated the first major change to the Byzantine gold coinage in over 500 years. Since its introduction by Constantine, the solidus was not only the main gold coin of the Roman and Byzantine empires but also a critical means of commerce beyond their borders - across the Mediterranean and Islamic world, and still further east along the Silk Road and in the Indian Ocean. Nicephorus introduced the histamenon nomisma, roughly the same weight as the solidus, and also the lighter tetarteron nomisma, approximately equal to the weight of the AD 6th century light-weight solidi and the contemporary Islamic dinar. Many believed Nicephorus' motives for introducing the lighter coin to be malicious; sources report that he ordered the payment of taxes with the heavier histamenon but made government disbursements using the lighter tetarteron.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/byzantine/ancients-nicephorus-ii-phocas-ad-963-969-av-histamenon-nomisma-21mm-435-gm-5h-ngc-choice-xf-5-5-4-5/a/61288-95313.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-61288-09182022
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Nicephorus II Phocas (AD 963-969). AV histamenon nomisma (21mm, 4.35 gm, 5h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 4/5. Constantinople, AD 963-969. + IhS XIS RЄX' RЄΣNANTIhM, bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger with two pellets in each arm, pallium and colobium, raising right hand in benediction, book of Gospels cradled in left arm / + ΘЄOTOC' Ь' HΘ' hICHF' dЄSP', half-length facing busts of the nimbate Virgin Mary (on left), wearing stola and maphorium, and Nicephorus II (on right), wearing crown with pendilia, and loros, jointly holding patriarchal cross with pellet on shaft between them; barred M-Θ flanking Virgin. Sear 1778.
From the Historical Scholar Collection. Ex CNG 65 (8 June 2005), lot 1869
Nicephorus Phocas was one of Byzantium's greatest generals, and his long list of achievements forced even his enemies to concede his military ability. He was born into a prominent family of the dynatoi, the land-owning aristocracy of Asia Minor that held great influence from the early ninth century to the time of Manzikert. Before becoming emperor, he reconquered Crete with a massive armada of over 300 ships and 50,000 men. Even more impressive was his conquest and sack of Aleppo, the capital of Byzantium's most formidable enemy on the eastern frontier with the Islamic world. Nicephorus ascended to the throne in AD 963 by marrying Theophano, widow of his predecessor Romanus II.
It was a marriage that she had not wanted; the new emperor was strange, austere, and remote, and deeply religious to the point of startling self-punishment. He slept on the floor instead of a bed, allegedly on nothing but an extremely uncomfortable leopard-skin blanket, and he wore a shirt of his uncle's hair under his armor. He was also not the most handsome man, with the Italian bishop Liutprand of Cremona describing him as "a monstrosity of a man, fat-headed and like a mole... disgraced by an neck an inch long; one who it would not be pleasant to meet in the middle of the night." However odd his personal habits and unattractive his features, Nicephorus's military achievements continued as emperor, culminating in the dramatic conquest of the city of Antioch, the ancient capital of Syria and an important center of Christianity as the seat of a Patriarchate.
In addition to his military achievements, Nicephorus also initiated the first major change to the Byzantine gold coinage in over 500 years. Since its introduction by Constantine, the solidus was not only the main gold coin of the Roman and Byzantine empires but also a critical means of commerce beyond their borders - across the Mediterranean and Islamic world, and still further east along the Silk Road and in the Indian Ocean. Nicephorus introduced the histamenon nomisma, roughly the same weight as the solidus, and also the lighter tetarteron nomisma, approximately equal to the weight of the AD 6th century light-weight solidi and the contemporary Islamic dinar. Many believed Nicephorus' motives for introducing the lighter coin to be malicious; sources report that he ordered the payment of taxes with the heavier histamenon but made government disbursements using the lighter tetarteron.
https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/byzantine/ancients-nicephorus-ii-phocas-ad-963-969-av-histamenon-nomisma-21mm-435-gm-5h-ngc-choice-xf-5-5-4-5/a/61288-95313.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-61288-09182022
HID02906262019
© 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved