Isaac, Usurper in Cyprus - Ex Slocum Collection

228, Lot: 597. Estimate $200. Sold for $235. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BYZANTINE. Æ Trachea. All coins: Isaac Comnenus. Usurper in Cyprus, 1185-1191. BI Aspron Trachy. Nicosia mint. The Virgin Mary, nimbate, enthroned facing, holding the nimbate head of the infant Christ / Isaac, crowned and holding akakia, and St. George, nimbate, standing facing, supporting patriarchal cross between them. DOC IV 2; SB 1991. Average Good Fine, one gilt and holed, one flattened. Rare, and from an important collection of coins of this ruler. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Three (3) coins in lot.

Ex John J. Slocum Collection (Sotheby's, 14 October 1999), lot 179 (part of).


Isaac Comnenus, grandnephew of Manuel I, was originally appointed governor of Cilicia, where he was captured by the Armenians and held for ransom. Released in 1184, he obtained forged documents naming him governor of Cyprus, which he soon proclaimed his own kingdom. Ruling with great cruelty, he could not be dislodged until Richard the Lionheart directed his Crusaders against the island in 1191. Isaac died three years later, still scheming to reclaim Cyprus, which was never again in Byzantine hands.