570th Anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople...today in 1453

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Well, my favorite city to visit fell to the Turks on May 29th, 1453. 

Feel free to post any coins in the thread, but for now...it's They Might Be Giants rendition of It's Istanbul Not Constantinople from 1990. In 1990 I had just started my first real job as a banker after college, I remember the song from that summer....

 

[expat]

Here is a different version

And my only coin from Constantinople, a very beat up Honorius which is also the last of my Imperial coinage, I have nothing "newer" than this.

Honorius, AE3. Constantinople. AD 408-423. DN HONORI-VS PF AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right, star behind head / GLORI-A ROMA-NORVM, two emperors standing facing, looking at each other, holding a globe between them. Mintmark CONS and officina letter A, B, Gamma or Δ RIC X Constantinople 409; Sear 2102. 15mm, 1.47gr

[ewomack]

It looks like @expat and I posted at the same moment. So it goes.

Wow, what a date. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll skip the whole historical calendar observations and debate that sometimes accompany these threads and just accept this date as the date that we now observe this historical event. Good enough. By 1453, Constantinople had become little more than a principality, but the event remains significant as a mark of the passing of a thousand year empire. Those who connect Byzantium as a continuum from Constantine and Rome (not everyone does), could arguably call it the final downfall of one of the longest-lasting and most influential empires in all of history. But grand statements like that one often get complicated quickly. Still, a very significant date nonetheless.

For years, I had no idea that They Might Be Giants only covered my favorite song on that 1990 album cited above. I found out one day when I sang the song in front of my mom. She said "how do you know that song? That's an old song!" then she started singing it. My youth-wracked brain didn't know what to think. Here is another great version, perhaps the one my mother had heard, by The Four Lads from 1953.

As for coins, here is a coin from what many consider the greatest era of Byzantium, the era of Justinian I (though some blame him for grossly over expanding and causing the empire's rapid retraction, from which it never fully recovered). Minted in Constantinople.

Justinian I Follis (540/1 - Year 14), Constantinople mint, Obv: DN IVSTINIANVS PP AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing holding cross on globe and shield; cross to right. Rev: Large M, ANNO to left, cross above, XIIII (date) to right, A below, CON in exergue, Sear 163

Also minted in Constantinople, a Follis from Theophilus, arguably the last iconoclast emperor of Byzantium.

Theophilus (829-842) Æ Follis; Constantinople mint; AD 830-842; Obv: ΘEOFIL bASIL; Half-length figure standing facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; Rev: ΘEO / FILE AVG / OVSTE SV / hICAS in four lines; 28mm; 8.26 grams; Sear 1667

Though not minted in Constantinople, but in Thessalonica, this tetarteron from the reign of Manuel I Comnenus, comes from what many consider the final "golden age" of Byzantium before Constantinople fell to the Latin rulers in "the disaster of 1204." But others apparently think that this emperor, much like Justinian I, overreached and once again stretched the empire too far.

Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1183), Æ Tetarteron; Thessalonica; Obv: ⨀/Γ/Є to left and P-over-w/Γ/O/S to right, half-length bust of St. George facing, holding spear and shield ; Rev:  MANɣHΛ ΔЄCΠΟΤ, bust of Manuel facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; 20 mm,3.24g; DOC 18; Sear 1975

Edited May 29, 2023 by ewomack

[expat]

Great minds think alike, so the saying goes @ewomack

[Cordoba]

not minted in constantinople but a sultani minted in egypt of suleiman the great

 

Ottoman Empire. Sulayman I The Magnificent, AD 1520. Sultani
(Gold, 21 mm, 3.36 g, 1 h), Misr

Obv: Name, titles, mint and date in five lines.
Rev: Titles in six lines.
Reference: Album 1317, Pere 180.

[Hrefn]

[ominus1]

....welp, out with old, in with the new.. to the victor go the spoils, etc etc..^^...

[robinjojo]

Here's another take on this anniversary.  This is an AE dirham of the 13th century, issued by the Turkoman Artuquids of Mardin, located in what is now southeastern Turkey.  Their coinage is quite distinct, especially for Islamic coins, due to their figural design.  Here is one example that imitates the facing portraits of Byzantine coins.  Their coins often have Greek, Byzantine and Roman influences.  Additionally there are often astrological references as shown below, with the obverse figure depicted as the sun, flanked by two stars.

Artiquid rule of Mardain ended in 1409 when it fell to Qara Qoyunlu of the Black Sheep Turkomans.

Artuqids of Mardin, AE dirham, Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan, AH 598(1201-02).

SS37.2; Album1830.1.

14.25 grams

Edited May 29, 2023 by robinjojo

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

22 hours ago, ewomack said:

It looks like @expat and I posted at the same moment. So it goes.

Wow, what a date. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll skip the whole historical calendar observations and debate that sometimes accompany these threads and just accept this date as the date that we now observe this historical event. Good enough. By 1453, Constantinople had become little more than a principality, but the event remains significant as a mark of the passing of a thousand year empire. Those who connect Byzantium as a continuum from Constantine and Rome (not everyone does), could arguably call it the final downfall of one of the longest-lasting and most influential empires in all of history. But grand statements like that one often get complicated quickly. Still, a very significant date nonetheless.

For years, I had no idea that They Might Be Giants only covered my favorite song on that 1990 album cited above. I found out one day when I sang the song in front of my mom. She said "how do you know that song? That's an old song!" then she started singing it. My youth-wracked brain didn't know what to think. Here is another great version, perhaps the one my mother had heard, by The Four Lads from 1953.

As for coins, here is a coin from what many consider the greatest era of Byzantium, the era of Justinian I (though some blame him for grossly over expanding and causing the empire's rapid retraction, from which it never fully recovered). Minted in Constantinople.

Justinian I Follis (540/1 - Year 14), Constantinople mint, Obv: DN IVSTINIANVS PP AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing holding cross on globe and shield; cross to right. Rev: Large M, ANNO to left, cross above, XIIII (date) to right, A below, CON in exergue, Sear 163

Also minted in Constantinople, a Follis from Theophilus, arguably the last iconoclast emperor of Byzantium.

Theophilus (829-842) Æ Follis; Constantinople mint; AD 830-842; Obv: ΘEOFIL bASIL; Half-length figure standing facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; Rev: ΘEO / FILE AVG / OVSTE SV / hICAS in four lines; 28mm; 8.26 grams; Sear 1667

Though not minted in Constantinople, but in Thessalonica, this tetarteron from the reign of Manuel I Comnenus, comes from what many consider the final "golden age" of Byzantium before Constantinople fell to the Latin rulers in "the disaster of 1204." But others apparently think that this emperor, much like Justinian I, overreached and once again stretched the empire too far.

Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1183), Æ Tetarteron; Thessalonica; Obv: ⨀/Γ/Є to left and P-over-w/Γ/O/S to right, half-length bust of St. George facing, holding spear and shield ; Rev:  MANɣHΛ ΔЄCΠΟΤ, bust of Manuel facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; 20 mm,3.24g; DOC 18; Sear 1975

I liked reading the journey of Louis VII to the east by the bishop Odo of Deuil. He covers the  second crusade from the perspective of the Franks, as the Byzantines called them. Manuel is portrayed as a fiend and scoundrel. Meanwhile the Greek sources portray the Westerners as uncouth and unwashed barbarians. Rollicking good fun 😊.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Ancient Coin Hunter

[Alegandron]

This guy took Constantinople...


Ottoman Turks Sultan Mehmet II 1451-1481 took Constantinople in 1453 Serez mint AR 1.2g

[Alegandron]

OTTOMAN EMPIRE


Kostantiniye, (Istambul)
Ottoman Empire
Suleyman I (The Magnificent) (r. AD 1520- 1566)
AV Sultani 20 mm x 3.36 grams Dated ( AH 926 or AD 1520)
Obverse: Sultan Süleyman Shah bin Sultan Selim Shah, Azze nasruhu, dhuribe fi qustantiniyah , seneh (926)-(Sultan Süleyman Shah son of Sultan Selim Shah, May his Victory be Glorious struck in Constantinople Year (AH 926) )
Reverse:Reverse : Dharibun-Nadri sahibbul izzi vennasri filberri velbahr-(Striker of the Glittering, Master of Might Victory and of Land and the Sea.)
Ref: Album -1317