The ''basilikon'' (, "imperial oin), commonly also referred to as the (Greek: δουκάτον), was a widely circulated

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

coin of the first half of the 14th century. Its introduction marked the return to a wide-scale use of silver coinage in the Byzantine Empire, and presaged the total abandonment of the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

coins around the middle of the century.

History

The ''basilikon'' was introduced shortly before 1304 by Emperor

Andronikos II Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos (; 25 March 1259 – 13 February 1332), Latinization of names, Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. His reign marked the beginning of the recently restored em ...

(r. 1282–1328), in direct imitation of the Venetian silver

ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

or '' grosso'', chiefly to pay the

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

of the

Catalan Company The Catalan Company or the Great Catalan Company (; , , , or ) was a company of mercenaries led by Roger de Flor in the early 14th century and hired by Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos to combat the increasing power of the Anatolian b ...

... The Byzantine coin closely followed the

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

of the Venetian model, with a seated

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

on the obverse and the two standing figures of Andronikos II and his son and co-emperor

Michael IX Palaiologos Michael IX Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 17 April 1277 – 12 October 1320) was Byzantine emperor together with his father, Andronikos II Palaiologos, from 1294 until his death. Andronikos II and Michael IX ruled as equal co-rulers, both using the ...

(r. 1294–1320) replacing

St. Mark Mark the Evangelist ( Koinē Greek: Μᾶρκος, romanized: ''Mârkos''), also known as John Mark ( Koinē Greek: Ἰωάννης Μᾶρκος, romanized: ''Iōánnēs Mârkos;'' Aramaic'': ܝܘܚܢܢ, romanized: Yōḥannān'') or Saint Mark ...

and the

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ) – in Italian, was the doge or highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice (697–1797). The word derives from the Latin , meaning 'leader', and Venetian Italian dialect for 'duke', highest official of the ...

on the reverse. The similarity was reinforced by the name of the new coin: the ''ducato'', the "coin of the doge", became the ''basilikon'', the "coin of the ''

basileus ''Basileus'' () is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English language, English-speaking world, it is perhaps most widely understood to mean , referring to either a or an . The title ...

''", although the contemporary Greek sources usually call both . The ''basilikon'' was of high-grade silver (0.920), flat and not concave (

scyphate Scyphate is a term frequently used in numismatics to refer to the concave or "cup-shaped" Byzantine coins of the 11th–14th centuries. This usage emerged in the premodern era and was solidified by scholars of the 19th century, when the term , a ...

) as other Byzantine coins, weighing 2.2 grams and officially traded at a rate of 1 to 12 with the gold ''

hyperpyron The ''hyperpyron'' (, ''nómisma hypérpyron'' ) was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the '' solidus'' as the Byzantine Empire's standard gold coinage in the 11th century. It was introduced by emperor Alexios I Komneno ...

'' or two , the traditional rate for Byzantine silver coinage since the days of the

hexagram , can be seen as a compound polygon, compound composed of an upwards (blue here) and downwards (pink) facing equilateral triangle, with their intersection as a regular hexagon (in green). A hexagram (Greek language, Greek) or sexagram (Latin l ...

and the ''

miliaresion The ''miliaresion'' (, from ), is a name used for two types of Byzantine silver coins. In its most usual sense, it refers to the themed flat silver coin struck between the 8th and 11th Century. History Originally, the name was given to a series ...

''. The actual rate, however, was usually lower, and fluctuated depending on the changing price of silver: contemporary sources indicate actual rates of 12.5, 13, or 15 ''basilika'' to the ''hyperpyron''.; . Examples of half-''basilika'' are also known to have been minted.. In the 1330s and 1340s, however, the ''basilikons weight was much reduced, as a result of a silver shortage affecting all of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, falling to 1.25 grams by the late 1340s. It ceased to be struck in the 1350s, and was replaced circa 1367 with the new, heavier '' stavraton''.

References

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Sources

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History

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading