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A New Find, A Mule tetarteron.

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Simon:
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

Vladislav D:
Check S. Bendall " The Mint of Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades "  Pl.7 - 18 . 
Regards,
Vlad .

Vladislav D:
 
--- Quote from: Vladislav D on May 19, 2022, 05:47:10 pm ---Check S. Bendall " The Mint of Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades "  Pl.7 - 18 . 
Regards,
Vlad .

--- End quote ---
Just saw that this has been already suggested on another forum :)
Regards,
Vlad.

Simon:
Even though that would make it just as rare of a coin, I still am not sure. I saw it mentioned last night.

The Trebizond coin in the article exists as two examples.  The weight is more accurate for a Trebizond coin.  The description taken from the bendall article

 Issue 13a
 Obv. IC XC. Bust of Christ facing, bearded and with cross nimbus with two pellets
 in each arm, wearing tunic and himation. holding Gospels in right hand.
 Rev. Jewelled cross with A-A-B-P in the angles.
 Ref. - . PL 7, 18
 Weights hts of two specimens, 1-16 and 1-87 g, with die-axes of 0°.

In the tetarteron noted by Zervos

The legend of the cross is a M ( bottom left as is mine)  The Legend of Christ is there but it is OC instead of IC . The weight does not match but imitation tetartera were issued in many forms. From big to small.

https://www.academia.edu/48883264/A_barbarous_hybrid_tetarteron_of_the_time_of_Alexios_I_Komnenos

I used some verdi care on the coin and re photographed. Here are the results. I do not see it exactly matching the description of either coin. 

Vladislav D:
I believe your coin looks more like Bendall coin . Iconography style and flan shape .
Regards,
Vlad

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