Byzantine Coin Confirmation

"Byzantine Empire" is a perfectly acceptable name for it, in common parlance. There are some scholarly types who disdain the name "Byzantine", quite correctly pointing out that what we call "the Byzantine Empire" was in fact a historical continuation of the eastern half of the old Roman Empire. Though they spoke Greek rather than Latin, these Eastern Romans always considered themselves fully Roman; they never woke up one day and said, "Hey, you know what? Let's call ourselves 'Byzantine' from now on!". The term "Romaion Empire" is often used by such people, "Romaion" being the Greek word for "Roman" and a name that actually appears on numerous Middle and Late Byzantine coin types; you can see this name used on the Wildwinds homepage, for example.

As for the particular ID, it sounds correct to me; I can't actually read enough of the obverse legend to ID the emperor properly, but what I can see is not inconsistent with a half-tetarteron of John II, from the Thessalonica mint. The reference number in Sear is 1954.

Truly excellent information and links! Thank you both.