For all of you budding collectors of Byzantine coins:

The Venetian grosso is often listed as a Byzantine coin, the basilikon, which very closely resembled the grosso. Look carefully at the inscriptions. Byzantine silver coins have Greek characters while the Venetian ones have Latin inscriptions. Also, the Byzantine coins have a lengthy inscription on the side with the single Christ figure whereas the Venetian ones have a few single characters at the most. The majority of silver coins advertised on eBay as Byzantine are in fact Venetian, which are much more common and are thus worth much less. Watch what you buy; the Byzantine coins are worth more than 3X the Ventian ones. There are a few sellers who have not corrected their listings after I've informed them that they have posted an incorrect description. Tsk, tsk.

I apologise for my picture quality. Look closely at pictures in individual listings, however, and you will see what I mean!

The picture below is a Byzantine coin; notice the Greek lettering:

This next picture shows a Venetian grosso. Note that the writing uses Latin characters: