★ An Extremely Rare Trachy of Manuel I ★

Empire of Trebizond, Manuel I Comnenus AR Trachy. Trebizond mint, AD 1238-1263. The Virgin seated facing on throne, holding head of the infant Christ facing on breast; MHP - ΘV across fields / Manuel standing facing, holding long labarum and akakia; Manus Dei in upper right field, MNHΛ O KMN across fields. Bendall, Trebizond 19; Retowski 1-10 pl. 1, 1-7; BMCV 1-7 pl. 32, 6-10; Sear 2600. 2.65g, 26mm, 6h.

Mint State. Extremely Rare; no other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.

From the inventory of a German dealer.

While the aspron of Manuel I is relatively common, the present trachy issue which immediately preceded it is astonishingly rare. D. Sear's 'Byzantine Coins and Their Values' values this excessively rare issue of Manuel at £350 in VF condition, with the type apparently sufficiently unavailable that no price is suggested for EF grade. By comparison, Sear rates SB 2148 of Andronicus I Gidon (see previous lot), of which type just over a hundred auction records are present on CoinArchives, at £400 in VF condition and £850 in EF condition.