Anonymous Issues (Latin Empire), 1204 – 1261 AD

Trachy, Constantinople circa 1204-1261 AD, Æ 21 mm, 1.67 g. [O AΓIOC NIKOΛAOC] Half-length figure of St. Nicholas, nimbate, bearded, in orans, wearing episcopal vestments, omophorion, and sakkos. Rev. [O AΓIOC Iω O ΠPOΔPOMOC] Full-length figure of St. John the Baptist, nimbate and bearded, wearing tunic and cloak, in r. hand holding patriarchal cross and l. outstretched. Sear 2041 (incorrectly described). LBC 84-8. DOC 21. CLBC 11.20.1.
Green patina and fine

Privately purchased on 4th August 1985 from Mr. Zauche, with old ticket.

The events of the fourth crusade and the subsequent Latin empire based around Constantinople cast a long shadow for a flame that burned but briefly. It is not the place of the cataloguer to recount in its entirety the needless tragedy that occurred. Yet, much of what took place in and around the momentous year of 1204 is the canvas on which the coinage to follow is illuminated. For the philhellene and lover of antiquity, perhaps the most saddening crime committed by the invading Western forces was the wholesale destruction of ancient Greek statuary to mint coinage. Let us quote Niketas Choniates, the great chronicler of such wanton events, “Because they were in want of money (for the barbarians are unable to sate their love of riches), they covetously eyed the bronze statues and consigned these to the flames. The brazen Hera standing in the Forum of Constantine was cast into a smelting furnace and minted into coins; her head could barely be carted off to the Great Palace by four yokes of oxen. Paris Alexander, standing with Aphrodite and handing to her the golden apple of Discord, was thrown down from his pedestal and cast on top of Hera. Who, having laid his eyes on the four-sided bronze mechanical device rising up to a height nearly equal to that of the tallest columns which have been set up in many places throughout the City, did not wonder at the intricacy of its ornamentation? Every melodious bird, warbling its springtime tunes, was carved upon it; the tasks of husbandmen, the pipes and milk pails, and the bleating sheep and bounding lambs were depicted. The wide-spread sea and schools of fish were to be seen, some caught and others shown breaking out of the nets to swim free again in the deep. There were the Erotes, shown in pairs and groups of three; innocent of clothing but armed with apples, they shook with sweet laughter as they threw these or were pelted by them. This four-sided monument terminated in a point like a pyramid, and above was suspended a female figure which turned with the first blowings of the wind, whence it was called Anemodoulion. Nonetheless, they gave over this most beautiful work to the smelters…These barbarians, haters of the beautiful, did not allow the statues standing in the Hippodrome and other marvellous works of art to escape destruction, but all were made into coins.”
The awful lament and testimony to the insatiable greed of the conquerors after seizing Constantinople continues on at length. The greatest statues, metalwork, and contraptions of antiquity that had been preserved for a millennium or more were summarily cast into the furnace to mint trachea for the Latin empire, an ironic fate for such artwork to be transformed into a series renowned for its crudity. To truly understate the cultural heritage destroyed by these actions might be impossible. Those who are brave of heart will find the ultimate obituary to the lost art of the Greco-Roman world in the annals of the masterful orator Choniates who lists with poetic and painful detail the many works now lost.
To end our description back where we started, Choniates states the crux of the matter succinctly, “Thus great things were exchanged for small ones, those works fashioned at huge expense were converted into worthless copper coins.” This lot and the coins of the Latin empire that follow are such examples.