With the name
Tetarteron, the confusion starts. We have one Eastern
Roman (
Byzantine) coin name that over a period of centuries represented several
denominations all in different levels of the monetary system.
Originally a
Tetarteron was a gold coin (Mid 10th and 11th century), then it became a pure silver coin (Early reign of
Alexius I) and after the coin reform of
Alexius I Comnenus in 1092 it became at least three different lower end
denominations.
The 12th century coin reform was a focus of
numismatist Michael
Hendy, he saw enough documents that the small copper coins verbally proved they went by the name
tetarteron, the same name used as the two previous higher value coins. In previous
numismatic books written before
his 1969 book these coins were listed a
follis or small flat coin.
Why the repetition in name for multiple
denominations is uncertain, all of the
denomination are roughly the same size and shape, In the early 1970s D. M
Metcalf did a metallurgy study of Alexius post reform tetartera, he found the ones minted in the city of
Constantinople had a silver content of roughly 4%. The
Thessalonica minted coins
had no silver. That 4% does not sound like much, but a
trachy of the same time period
had only 8% silver.
The Alexius I Comnenus reform was the first coinage to use mixed metals, so the fact he made a mixed metal tetarteron is quite logical. The
abundance of the coinage from this century marks a turning point in the
history of commerce.
Michael
Hendy included
his findings in Dumbarton Oakes
Catalog IV published in 1999, the difference in the addition of silver and decided it was a separate
denomination from the
Thessalonica issues that proved to contain no silver. In
his findings he called them the
Metropolitain tetartera. A simpler name would have been
City Tetartera and for the sake of this article, I will refer to them as such.
These City tetartera minted in
Constantinople were considered extremely
rare to find, so hard to find that Phillip
Grierson decided they were issued for ceremonial use only. At the
writing of
his catalog the silver content was unknown.
Today they do hit the market with some regularity but
still far rarer than their
Thessalonica counterparts.
The Existence of City
Tetarteron makes this
field even more confusing for the common collector, it no longer looks visible different than those issued in
Thessalonica. For the collector the easiest way to know is by looking at the
catalog and knowing where it was minted.
None of the catalogs that are mainly used today were updated after Dumbarton Oakes
Catalog IV, that is why this is not commonly known among collectors.
Now Alexius Issued 4 City Tetartera minted in
Constantinople and all with silver content.
Here are the four issues,
( Figure 1) in the most condition found. Dark and no silver wash left.
SBCV-1920-1921-1922-1923As for the most common question, how did the citizens know the difference?After studying this
denomination, the last two decades, I noticed sever examples
had traces of silver coating, as much as the same way the trachea was
silvered so was the City tetartera. The more I handled these coins the less apparent the
silvering remained; I was in fact, by touching them helping remove the small amount of
silvering that was left.
The main reason this is no longer noticeable to the collector is that these coins remained in circulation for many years, whatever silver coating was on them long wore off. The
tetarteron was too low a
denomination to recall for the new ruler.
Hoard evidence has proven that coins of Alexius and Manuel were imitated in the 13th century, rulers who
had not been around in over 50 years
had local population recreating the coins they were familiar with, that in turn tells us they were not recalled.
What was the buying power of the coins? in an interesting correspondence between a Princess and her Tutor they
buying power was mentioned, In the letter from
Thessalonica a
tetarteron could purchase a small loaf of bread, the letter from
Constantinople mentioned a
tetarteron could purchase 12 mackerel
fish, A considerable difference between the two
denominations so they were defiantly talking about two different coins with the same name.
Why are they rarer than the Thessalonica issues?Several reason, they were worth more so, lost less, the circulation of the City tetartera was primarily limited to the city, in the Greek
area of the empire and
Asia Minor, they are rarely found. This is true for all of the rulers who issued City tetartera.
Alexius Comnenus I
had 4 issues City Tetartera
John Comnenus II 2 issues City Tetartera
Manuel Comnenus 4 issues City Tetartera
Andronicus Comnenus 1 issue of a City
Tetarteron.
Isaac Angelus II one issue of City
tetarteron but with very low silver content around 1%
(Isaac Comnenus Usurper of
Cyprus tetartera followed the model of city tetartera with 1.5% silver in all
his tetartera, he
had 8 issues)
Alexius III, one issue and a half
tetarteron as well (The only half tetartera known to be minted in the city.), These coins were never tested for silver content and more than likely did not have any.
His other mixed metal coin coinage was heavily debased, some of
his Electrum Aspron Trachea did not even contain any gold.)
The
tetarteron continued after the fall of
Constantinople to the Latins, they change the name in later years to
Assarion , evidence of this name change was due to one document found. None of the tetartera after 1203 contained silver even if created in the
mint of
Constantinople. It once again became a simple copper coin.
In the last few years, I have managed to acquire three examples of Alexius City tetartera with some
silvering intact and one
John II City tetartera with some
silvering still intact, none of them are my most attractive examples, two of them seem to be a higher silver content allowing them to survive as notable different, even with heavy circulation.
Figure 2
Alexius SBCV-1920 SBCV-1922 Bottom SBCV-1923 and John II Comnenus SBCV-1946The city tetarteron was a different denomination, The evidence is in
DOC IV, Julian Bakers book mentions it but
his book was based on 13th century coinage did not go into great detail. He does go into great detail over the imitation tetartera of that century. Other references would include D.M
Metcalf and Pagona
Papadopoulou.
Regardless, collectors and dealers of coins focus on David Sears
work and that has not been updated in 50 years and is doubtful that it will be. So hopefully the next major reference
work will include All of the new findings of the past 50 years and
City Tetartera. Comments are appreciated, feel free to dispute, the silver content is well documented, but the
silvering is not.
Simon
