Coin of Michael VIII Palaiologos
Type:
Coins
Date:
ca. 1261–72
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Turkey
Medium:
Gold
Dimensions:
2.4 cm
Description:
In 1092, under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, the gold hyperperon (Greek for above fire , meaning refined above fire and therefore especially pure) replaced the earlier Byzantine nomisma. The value of that coin had been debased during the preceding century; the new one weighed the same but contained less gold. These hyperpera (plural) were minted until the mid-fourteenth century, when the Byzantines stopped producing gold coins altogether.
Hyperpera were slightly cup-shaped. The convex obverse of the one minted by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos showed, in bird's-eye view, the orant Theotokos encircled by the walls and towers of Constantinople. The newly recaptured city creates a halo for the Virgin. On the concave reverse, the kneeling emperor, dressed in the ceremonial crown and loros, is presented to the enthroned Christ by his namesake, the archangel Michael. Christ appears to bless the emperor with his right hand while holding a scroll in his left. This iconography signaled that Mary protected Constantinople and that Michael's reconquest of the city in 1261 had divine support. Michael was the legitimate ruler, a point that could have been contested by the two other rulers in exile during the Latin occupation of Constantinople.
This was the first time an emperor was shown kneeling on a Byzantine coin. Notably, Michael's upright pose is not the proskynesis associated with earlier emperors before Christ, as in the mosaic over the imperial door of Hagia Sophia. Instead, it imitated Venetian silver coins on which that city's ruler kneels with a straight back before St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The novel images on both sides of Michael VIII's hyperpera projected clear messages of divinely sanctioned Palaiologan authority to a wide audience.
Hyperpera were slightly cup-shaped. The convex obverse of the one minted by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos showed, in bird's-eye view, the orant Theotokos encircled by the walls and towers of Constantinople. The newly recaptured city creates a halo for the Virgin. On the concave reverse, the kneeling emperor, dressed in the ceremonial crown and loros, is presented to the enthroned Christ by his namesake, the archangel Michael. Christ appears to bless the emperor with his right hand while holding a scroll in his left. This iconography signaled that Mary protected Constantinople and that Michael's reconquest of the city in 1261 had divine support. Michael was the legitimate ruler, a point that could have been contested by the two other rulers in exile during the Latin occupation of Constantinople.
This was the first time an emperor was shown kneeling on a Byzantine coin. Notably, Michael's upright pose is not the proskynesis associated with earlier emperors before Christ, as in the mosaic over the imperial door of Hagia Sophia. Instead, it imitated Venetian silver coins on which that city's ruler kneels with a straight back before St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The novel images on both sides of Michael VIII's hyperpera projected clear messages of divinely sanctioned Palaiologan authority to a wide audience.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
9
Repository and Online Resources:
• This coin is at Dumbarton Oaks, no. BZC.1948.17.3590.
Image Credits:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
