TYPE Byzantine Empire, Empire of Trebizond, John II Komnenos (1280-97 AD), silver asper DESCRIPTION . Obv: St. Eugenius holding long cross, Greek legend [O AG] I - EVGENIO Rev: Emperor in loros, holding labarum and gl. cr., Manus Dei crowning him from upper right, Greek legend IO O KO [MN] - NOS REFERENCE: SB 2609 GRADING: AEF, typical uneven strike, lightly toned ORDER INFO: B2520, $75 Typical uneven strike, but the top 2/3 of reverse (most of the emperor's image) are with mint EF+ features. The Empire of Trebizond splintered off from the main Byzantine state in the wake of Latin occupation of Constantinople. Given its territorial discontinuity with the shrinking Byzantine mainstream - located on the southeastern shores of the Black Sea - it led a precarious though illustrious existence for the next two and a half centuries, finally to be incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by Mehemmed the Conqueror, eight years after the fall of the Byzantine capital.