Uncertain Authority, Copper, Follis, Uncertain Mint, 1077-1078

Commentary

Another specimen where no obverse inscription could be read, was described as a class N anonymous follis in DOC 3.2:706, no. N1. The accession in 1974 of three further specimens of this type showing  traces of the name of an uncertain Nikephoros on the obverse, surprisingly around the bust of Christ, as here, led Grierson (“Nicephorus Bryennius or Nicephorus Basilacius?”) to attribute the whole group to one of the contemporary rebels named Nikephoros: Bryennios or Basilakios. The initial letters following NIKHΦΩ-POC are OMI, which cannot be made into Melissenos but could stand for Bryennios since the M could be read as R (for B) and the I as part of a following P. Grierson concluded: “until a further specimen turns up, with the last word of the inscription fully legible, I think one must suspend judgment on the matter.”

P. Grierson, “Nicephorus Bryennius or Nicephorus Basilacius?,” 2, fig. a.