John II Comnenus (AD 1118-1143). EL aspron trachy (31mm, 5h). NGC Choice VF, graffiti. Constantinople. IC-XC (barred), Christ seated facing on backless throne with single pellet on each arm, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium, and colobium, right hand raised in benediction, book of Gospels cradled in left arm; double border / Iw/ΔEC/ΠO/TH-Θ/ΓE/Ω/ΓI, John II (on left), standing facing, wearing crown with pendilia, divitision, and chlamys, and St. George (on right), standing facing, nimbate, wearing military dress, sword in left hand, jointly holding between them long patriarchal cross set on globus; double border. Sear 1941. John II was a skillful manager of the great tension between the Byzantine Empire and the Western European Crusader forces during his reign, as he simultaneously sought Western help against the Muslims desire while also preserving the power and independence of the Byzantine realm from the ever-threatening "Latins." The patriarchal cross on the reverse of the coin, a major symbol of Orthodox Christianity, would have signaled John's desire to protect his people, empire, and faith from the hostile Roman Catholic Crusaders, as would the depiction of St. Theodore, a popular saint in the Byzantine cultural sphere.

HID09801242017

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