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Up for auction is a Anonymoys 'type' Byzantine Follis coin issued during the reign of Basil from 1020-1028 AD.
ID#226m
Diameter: 32mm
MINT: Constantinople
OBVERSE; + EMMANOVHΛ
- Bust of Christ facing, holding book of Gospels.
REVERSE; +IhSϤS / XRISTϤS / bASILЄϤ / bASILЄ
- Legend within five lines.
REFERENCE: Sear 1818
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.