It has become popular for dealers to offer what are said to be the Latin version of the
hyperpyron S.2073 of John Vatatzes.
Normally these are identified by a
siglum of three or four dots.
But what is this based on?
As I understand it the Latin hyperpyra (Pegolotti's "perperi latini") were supposedly identified by Oberlander-Tarnoveanu in an obscure journal that I bet almost no dealers or collectors have ever seen.
Certainly I haven't seen it, but it is possible to dig up second hand reports of it on the net, as here:
http://tinyurl.com/pll53lpFrom those reports it seems that Oberlander-Tarnoveanu described the Latin hypers as having a linear, rather than a dotted,
nimbus around
Christ's
head, with a "
cross pattee" in the
nimbus, instead of the usual double barred
cross arms.
But what does this "
cross pattee" mean?
Does it mean the
types shown below, which it should be noted, mostly have
sigla of only one dot?
Note that on some of these
types (the Teutoburger coin) the
nimbus is rendered as
very fine dots, which Oberlander-Tarnoveanu also notes.
But maybe I'm on the wrong track here, so if anyone knows the real story it would be nice to have it.
Ross G.