Kinzer Coins

Alexios III Angelos Ancient Byzantine Bronze Trachy — Before the Fourth Crusade (AD 1195–1203)

Name: Alexios III Angelos Ancient Byzantine Bronze Trachy — Before the Fourth Crusade (AD 1195–1203)
Brand: Kinzer Coins
Price: 75.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Alexios III Angelos Ancient Byzantine Bronze Trachy — Before the Fourth Crusade (AD 1195–1203)

$75.00 USD

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Alexios III Angelos Byzantine Trachy — Constantinople Before the Fourth Crusade

Own a Coin from the Reign Immediately Before the Crisis of 1203–1204

The exact Byzantine trachy of Alexios III Angelos shown, issued at Constantinople during his reign from AD 1195–1203, immediately before the Fourth Crusade overturned the imperial government and ultimately captured the capital.

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Why This Coin Matters

Alexios III Angelos seized the Byzantine throne in 1195 and ruled until 1203. His reign ended when the forces of the Fourth Crusade reached Constantinople while supporting the claim of Alexios IV Angelos. Alexios III fled the capital in July 1203.

The Crusaders did not sack Constantinople during Alexios III’s reign. The famous capture and sack occurred the following year, in April 1204, after a further political crisis in the city. This coin is therefore best described as money from the imperial reign immediately preceding that catastrophe—not as a coin struck during the sack itself.

Late Byzantine trachea are instantly recognizable for their concave, cup-shaped form. Issues of Alexios III commonly use sacred and imperial imagery that tied the emperor to the Christian Roman tradition and to Constantinople’s long imperial past.

Because this specimen was issued in the capital under the emperor whose overthrow became an early stage of the Fourth Crusade’s intervention in Byzantine politics, it offers a particularly direct numismatic connection to the world immediately before 1204.

What cannot be known is whether this individual coin remained in Constantinople through the siege and sack. Its historical importance rests on its secure attribution to Alexios III’s Constantinopolitan coinage and its place in the chronology leading to the Fourth Crusade.