Welcome to cc coins
Up for auction is a Anonymous 'type' Byzantine Follis coin issued during the reign of Basil from 976-1025 AD.
ID# 631h
Diameter: 27mm
MINT: Constantinople
OBVERSE; + EMMANOVHΛ
- Bust of Christ facing, holding book of Gospels.
REVERSE; +IhSϤS / XRISTϤS / bASILЄϤ / bASILЄ
- Legend within four lines.
REFERENCE: Sear 1813
Basil II
976-1025
Probably the most militant of the Byzantine emperors, Basil never married, devoting his entire reign to conducting campaigns against Bulgarians, Fatimids, Georgians and the western principalites. At the battle of Kleidon in 1014 he acquired his nickname Bulgar-Slayer (Bulgaroktonos) when he captured and blinded 14,000 Bulgarians. The Bulgarian tsar Samuel died of despair when he saw what had been done to his men. Reprinted from the Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.