Bronze, 4.43 grams, 22.02 mm. Struck at Edessa 1078-1081 A.D. Obverse: Bust of Jesus facing, cross behind. Wearing pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benedictation; in left hand book of gospels. Reverse: Christian cross with x at centre and globe and two pellets at each extremity; in lower field on either side, floral ornament. In upper field on either side crescent. Byzantine Coins and Their Values 1889. Very Fine.

Nikephoros III Botaneiates or Nicephorus III Botaniates (died 10 December 1081, Constantinople), Byzantine emperor from 1078 to 1081, belonged to a family which claimed descent from the Roman Fabii and the Byzantine Phokas family. Nikephoros Botaneiates had served as general under Constantine IX and Romanos IV Diogenes, and under Michael VII Doukas he became governor of the Anatolic theme and commander of the troops in Asia.

In 1078 he revolted against Michael VII and his finance minister Nikephoritzes, and with the connivance of the Seljuk Turks marched upon Nicaea, where he proclaimed himself emperor. In the face of another rebellious general, Nikephoros Bryennios (the father or grandfather of the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios), his election was ratified by the aristocracy and clergy, while Michael VII abdicated and became a monk. In March or June of 1078, Nikephoros III Botaneiates entered Constantinople in triumph and was crowned by Patriarch Kosmas I of Constantinople. With the help of his general Alexios Komnenos, he drove Bryennios and other rivals out of the field, but failed to clear the invading Turks out of Asia Minor.

To solidify his position, Nikephoros III sought to marry Eudokia Makrembolitissa, the mother of Michael VII and the widow of Constantine X and Romanos IV. This plan was undermined by the Caesar John Doukas, and Nikephoros instead married Maria of Alania, the widow of Michael VII, in contravention of church canons. Nevertheless, Nikephoros did not recognize the succession rights of Maria's son Constantine Doukas, which exposed him to the suspicion and plots of the surviving portions of the Doukas faction at court. Nikephoros' administration did not win him much support, as his favored courtiers alienated much of the older court bureaucracy and failed to recover stop the devaluation of the Byzantine currency.