In the eastern
Roman empire these coins circulated in the Greek
part, they were officially minted during the reigns of
Alexius I to Alexius IV. Imitations have been found of these coins but minted in the 13th century, they were important to local economies, they tended to use the simpler designs of rulers who
had died decades before. To determine what was original and what was imitation the design will be cruder and sometimes
weights will differ from the original issue, mostly less. You will not find
overstruck tetartera ( Except
Alexius I, he minted on top of anonymous follies that were
still in circulation.) , they continued to circulate that's how coins last officially minted decades earlier could be imitated.
Here is a
gallery I created for imitation tetartera, I have not updated it in a while.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6572I would not call the
crusader coin from Edessa an imitation because it is a different
style. The way they surmised it was from Edessa was more than likely based on site finds and maybe some written knowledge.
Here is a cool imitation that I bought from
Cyprus, it was found there. An imitation of an Alexius Coin.
ALEXIUS AE
TETARTERON S-1929
DOC 38 CLBC 2.4.5 Imitation
OBV
Bust of
Christ, bearded and
nimbate, wearing tunic and
kolobion; holds gospels open in l. hand. Pellet in each limb of
nimbus cross.
REV. Bust facing wearing
stemma,
divitision, and
chlamys; holds in r. hand
scepter cruciger, and in l.
Globus cruciger.
Size 20mm
Weight 2.5gm
DOC lists 9 examples with
weight s running from 1.82gm to 5.10gm and size from 18mm to 22mm (
DOC was written before imitations were proven so I am uncertain if these figures include imitations)
This is a strange example, Alexius
side fits the norm a
bit cruder but with
good detail, the
Christ side lacks the book and
Christ's blessing. Imitations of this particular
type of coin were created well into the 13th century. This coin was a very recent find in Paphos
Cyprus.