(Verkauft für $158.0)

1355, Kingdom of Serbia, Stephan Urosh IV Dusan. Silver Gros Coin. Variety?

Mint Place: Vienna
Mint Period: 1345-1355
Denomination: Gros / Dinar
Condition: Crudely struck, nicely toned, otherwise VF+
Reference: Jovanovic 11.66. var. (as Jovanivic mentiones there are many varieties of this type)
Diameter: 20mm
Material: Silver
Weight: 1.17gm

Obverse: Facing busts of the King and his Queen facing, both holding patriarchal long-cross.

Reverse: Throned Jesus Christ, flanked by crude Christogram (IC-XC).

In Eastern Christianity, the most widely used Christogram is a four-letter abbreviation, ΙϹ ΧϹ — a traditional abbreviation of the Greek words for "Jesus Christ" (i.e., the first and last letters of each of the words "ΙΗϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ, with the lunate sigma "Ϲ" common in medieval Greek), and written with titlo (diacritic) denoting scribal abbreviation (І҃С Х҃С). On icons, this Christogram may be split: "ΙϹ" on the left of the image and "ΧϹ" on the right. It is sometimes rendered as "ΙϹ ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ", meaning "Jesus Christ Conquers." "ΙϹΧϹ" may also be seen inscribed on the Ichthys. In the traditional icon of Christ Pantokrator, Christ's right hand is shown in a pose where his fingers bend and cross to form the letters ΙϹ, Χ, and Ϲ.

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Урош IV Душан), known as Stefan Dušan, the Mighty (silni/силни; c. 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks from 16 April 1346 until his death. Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia.

Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a Patriarchate, finished the construction of the Visoki Dečani monastery (a UNESCO site), and founded the Saint Archangels Monastery, among others. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial, political, economic, and cultural peak.

Dušan died in 1355, seen as the end of resistance against the advancing Ottoman Empire and the subsequent fall of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the region.