I never thought I would acquire one of these
hybrid Mule imitation
tetarteron. In fact I never even went on a chase for it. I recently
had one capture my attention and after a long
work trip I came
home to it in my mail box.
I first learned about this
type of imitation from an article of Orestes
Zervos written in 2002.
He notes even though a dozen examples were found in the Cornith excavations only two were known of today, one in Dumbarton Oakes and the other in Cornith
Collection. If the article is
still accurate, mine would be a 3rd known.
The coin is a mix over two
Alexius I issues. It has a
Christ with gospels
Obverse ( SBCV-1929) and an Alexius Jewelled
cross( sbcv-1931) . The two issues Dr.
Zervos noted were in much better condition than mine and much heavier in
weight 4.94 and 3.55gm
My new example is much lighter than the other two examples. More equivalent to a half
tetarteron. 18.23mm and .9gm