Costantine IV (1365-1373)

The period from 1363, after the death of Constantine III, until 1365, the ascension of Constantine IV, has been obscured due to the lack of reliable sources, which has allowed the perspective that Levon the Usurper had seized the throne during those years to proliferate in historiography. The two recent authoritative historians who have studied this issue, C. Mutafian [Mutafian 2012, 217-218] and L. Ter-Petrosyan [Ter-Petrosyan 2007, 438-442], are convinced that this misconception has arisen due to inaccuracies and ambiguities in the uncritical acceptance of certain sources, and this also applies to the coins [Vardanyan V. 2018].

The coins of Constantine IV are relatively scarce and present in five series, which are distinguished from each other, first of all, by symbols placed in the fields. If the coins of Constantine III contained about 86% silver, and the original issues of Constantine IV contained about 75% silver, then by the end of the coinage, it had decreased to 17-21%. This low level of silver content was also maintained in the coins of the next and last king, Levon V.