Isaac I Comnenus. 1057-1059. AV Histamenon Nomisma (24.5mm, 4.40 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Near EF.

CNG Feature Auction 133
Lot: 723. Estimated: $ 750

Byzantine, Coin-in-Hand Video, Gold

Sold For $ 4 125. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

Isaac I Comnenus. 1057-1059. AV Histamenon Nomisma (24.5mm, 4.40 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing on suppedion, nimbate, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels / Crowned facing figure of Isaac, wearing military attire, holding drawn sword and resting hand on scabbard. DOC 2; Füeg II 2.B; SB 1843. Toned, some luster. Near EF.

From the Best Collection of Byzantine Coins. Ex Berk BBS 118 (17 January 2001), lot 82.

Isaac I Comnenus grew up in a powerful military household and became a successful general. He came to resent the weak rule of the civilian aristocracy in Constantinople and seized power in a coup in June, 1057. At first he had the support of the Patriarch, Michael I, but his seizure of church property to finance the army soon put him them at odds. Although he did much to strengthen a military that had been badly neglected in the previous reigns, and though he led successful campaigns against the Hungarians and Pechenegs on the Danube frontier, he offended too many powerful interests and was forced to abdicate in December of 1059. He entered a monastery and died in 1061. A later member of the same family, Alexius I Comnenus, sized the throne twenty years later and was far more successful in transforming the Byzantine state.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 133 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 15-16 September 2026.

CNG Feature Auction 133 – Session Three – Lot 595-896 will be held Wednesday morning, 16 September 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.