TYPE Byzantine Empire, Empire of Trebizond, Manuel I Komnenos (1238-1263 AD), silver asper DESCRIPTION . Obv: St. Eugenius holding long cross, Greek legend O AGI - EVGENI Rev: Manuel in loros, holding labarum and akakia, Manus Dei in upper right, Greek legend MNI [...] - O KOMN [...] REFERENCE: SB 2601 GRADING: VF, typical uneven strike, toned ORDER INFO: B2521, $68 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.