Histamenon was the name given to the gold Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 solidus

Solidus (coin)

The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

when the slightly lighter tetarteron

Tetarteron

The tetarteron was a Byzantine term applied to two different coins, one gold circulating from the 960s to 1092 in parallel to the histamenon, and one copper used from 1092 to the second half of the 13th century.- Gold coin :...

was introduced in the 960s. To distinguish the two, the histamenon was changed in form from the original solidus, becoming wider and thinner, as well as concave (scyphate

Scyphate

Scyphate is a term frequently used in numismatics to refer to the concave or "cup-shaped" Byzantine coins of the 11th–14th centuries.This usage emerged in the 19th century, when the term scyphatus, attested in south Italian documents of the 11th and 12th centuries, was erroneously interpreted as...

) in form. Later usually shortened to stamenon (στάμενον), it was discontinued after 1092. In the 12th and 13th centuries the name stamenon came to be applied to the concave billon

Billon (alloy)

Billon is an alloy of a precious metal with a majority base metal content . It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins.The word comes from the French bille....

 and copper trachea coins (q.v.).

Establishment

Ever since Constantine I

Constantine I

Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...

 introduced it in 309, the Byzantine Empire's main coinage had been the high-quality solidus

Solidus (coin)

The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

or nomisma

Nomisma

Nomisma was the ancient Greek word for "money" and is derived from nomos "anything assigned, a usage, custom, law, ordinance"....

, which had remained standard in weight (4.55 gram

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s) and gold content (24 carat

Carat

Carat or karat may refer to:In the gem business:* Carat , a unit of mass for gemstones, equal to 0.2 gram* Carat or karat, a unit of purity for goldIn Judaism:...

s) through the centuries. The Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) however introduced a new coin, the [nomisma] tetarteron ("quarter [coin]") which was 2 carats (i.e. about ¹⁄₁₂, despite its name) lighter than the original nomisma. The latter now became known as the histamenon, from the Greek verb , "to stand up", implying that these followed the traditional standard. The reasons for this change are not clear; Byzantine chroniclers however suggest fiscal motives, reporting that Nikephoros collected the taxes as before in the histamenon while paying back with the tetarteron, which was officially rated as equal in value to the full-weight coin.

Initially, the two coins were virtually indistinguishable except in weight. During the later reign of Basil II

Basil II

Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...

 (r. 976–1025), the tetarteron began to be minted in a thicker and smaller form, while the histamenon became correspondingly thinner and wider. Only during the sole rule of Constantine VIII

Constantine VIII

Constantine VIII was reigning Byzantine emperor from December 15, 1025 until his death. He was the son of the Emperor Romanos II and Theophano, and the younger brother of the eminent Basil II, who died childless and thus left the rule of the Byzantine Empire in his hands.-Family:As...

 (r. 1025–1028) however did the two coins become iconographically distinct as well. By the mid-11th century, the tetarteron measured 18 mm wide and its weight apparently standardized at 3.98 gram

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s, i.e. three carats less than the histamenon or stamenon (a name first attested in 1030), which now measured 25 mm in diameter (as opposed to 20 mm for the original solidus). In addition, under Michael IV the Paphlagonian (r. 1034–1041), it began to be minted in a slightly concave (scyphate) form, possibly to increase the thin coin's strength and to make it less easily bent. Flat coins were still struck at times, but scyphate ones came to predominate from Constantine IX (r. 1042–1055) on and became standard under Isaac I Komnenos

Isaac I Komnenos

Isaac I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1057 to 1059, and the first reigning member of the Komnenos dynasty...

 (r. 1057–1059). These concave coins were known as histamena trachea or simply trachea (τραχέα, "rough, uneven") from their shape.

Debasement and abolition

However, starting with Michael IV, who was a former money lender, the gold content began to be increasingly lowered and the coins debased. After a period of relative stability in ca. 1055–1070, the gold content declined dramatically in the disastrous 1070s and 1080s. The michaelata

Michaelaton

The michaelaton , in Latin michaelatus, was the colloquial name given to the gold Byzantine coins struck by any emperor called Michael....

of Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078) still contained some 16 carats of gold, but by the time of Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

 (r. 1081–1118), the nomismata struck contained almost no gold at all. Thus, in 1092, Alexios I carried out a comprehensive monetary reform, replacing among others the debased gold coins, both the histamenon and the tetarteron, with a new high-quality gold issue, the hyperpyron

Hyperpyron

The hyperpyron was a Byzantine coin in use in the latter Middle Ages, replacing the solidus as the Empire's gold coinage.The gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the solidus or nomisma, whose gold content had remained steady at 24 carats for seven centuries and was consequently...

.

Henceforth, and for the duration of the Komnenian monetary system (12th–13th centuries), the term stamenon, due to its association with scyphate coins, came to be applied as a blanket term to the similarly concave billon and copper coins (trachea) issued by the Empire.