11 Weeks Of Coins Of The Crusader States

Ok I've done a little more digging on your coin. As it turns out, SB 2057 was minted in Nicaea. The section attributable to John III from Thessalonica starts with #2058 and goes up through #2069. I have the 1974 edition, so maybe Sear did some re-numbering in subsequent editions?

The coin in CCS that weighs about 2.2 g (variety #27) does seem to be the best match for the one detail that I can see on your coin. On the second photo, there appears to be a somewhat stick-figure man with some sort of multi-pellet object near his/her right hand. That might be the beaded divitision (long robe with close fitting sleeves) worn by the emperor on the rev of CCS 27. Or maybe not--I'm just spit-balling here.

Week #10 brings us to the Crusader coins of Frankish Greece (including Achea, Carytaena, Damala, Athens, Salona, Negroponte/Euboea, Epirus, Neopatras, Naxos, and Tenos & Mykonos). This is admittedly a bit of a hodgepodge of Greek locations; however, I do note that for several of these regions, there are only one or two known coins produced. In contradistinction, the Principality of Achaea and Duchy of Athens were much more proficient.

Malloy describes in some detail the question of when exactly coins were minted by crusaders in Frankish Greece. On the one hand, Geoffroy I de Villehardouin seems to have been given the right to mint while other accounts indicate that the first right to mint was given to William of Achaea in 1249 AD. In either case, coins were likely struck first in the Frankish city of Glarentza at some point after 1255 AD. In the manuscript Practica Della Mercatura by Pegolotti (ca. 1280 AD), an interesting description of the Glarentzan mint was given. The basic unit of money was the gold Hyperpyron. This was subdivided into 20 Sterlini (a theoretical denomination that was not actually minted). Then, four Torneselli Piccioli made up one Sterlino. Pegolotti reported that Torneselli were being struck in Glarentza.

Here is a listing of coins, organized by mint and ruler by Malloy (quite a bit of information here):

Principality of Achaea
William of Villehardouin (1245-1278 AD)
Charles I of Anjou (1278-1285 AD)
Charles II of Anjou (1285-1289 AD)
Florent of Hainaut (1289-1297 AD)
Isabelle of Villehardouin (1297-1301 AD)
Philip of Savoy (1301-1306 AD)
Philip of Taranto (1306-1313 AD)
Louis of Burgundy (1313-1316 AD)
Ferdinand of Majorca (Pretender, 1315-1316 AD)
Maud of Hainaut (1316-1318 AD)
John of Gravina (1318-1333 AD)
Robert of Taranto (1333-1364 AD)

Barony of Carytaena
Helena Angelica Comnena (ca. 1291-1300 AD)

Lordship of Damala
Anonymous (ca. 1325 AD)

Duchy of Athens
Guy I de la Roche (1225-1263 AD) (?)
William de la Roche (1280-1287 AD)
Guy II (1287-1294 AD during his minority or 1294-1308 AD during his majority)
Gautier de Brienne (1308-1311 AD)
Anonymous Catalan Dukes (1311-1388 AD) (?)
Anonymous Florentine Dukes (1388-1394 AD) (?)

County of Salona
Thomas III de Stomoncourt (1294-1311 AD)

Triarchy of Negroponte (Euboea)
William of Villehardouin (1255-1259 AD)

Despotate of Epirus
Philip of Taranto (1294-1313 AD)
John II Orsini (1323-1335 AD)

Duchy of Neopatras (Great Wallachia in Thessaly)
John II Angelus Comnenus (1303-1318 AD)

Duchy of Naxos
Nicolo I Sanudo (1323-1341 AD)
Giovanni I Sanudo (1341-1362 AD)

Lordship of Tenos and Mykonos
Giorgi I Ghisi (1303-1311 AD)

Catalan Duchy of Athens(?)
Anonymous

Chios
"Palaeologus" and Benedict I Zaccaria (1304-1314 AD)
Martin and Benedict II Zaccaria (1314-1319 AD)
Martin Zaccaria (1319-1329 AD)
Maona Society (1347-ca.1385 AD)

Corfu
Philip of Taranto (1304-1314 AD)


I have two examples of Frankish Greek Crusader coins--I'll post them next. Especially if you are willing to pick up coins from Achaea or Athens, these coins are readily available and at pretty reasonable prices.

Very informative and interesting thread Spence.

European history was one of my favorite subjects and I had to refresh my memory on some of the places & terms. Since I don't have any coins in this period, I enjoy looking at your postings and history behind them.

Thanks CJ and Bob! Clearly, I don't have the depth of knowledge (as I do, for example, on the early dated coins of Europe), but it has been fun learning as I go!

Great work, Dave. I've been enjoying the ride.

For those who may want to peruse some Knights of Rhodes coins, they get about 12 pages of coverage, starting on page 200, in the "Coins of the Crusaders":
http://www.numismatas.com/Forum/Pdf...rusaders.pdf

Sure, Dave. I had mentioned it on page one of this thread too, as well as in a post last year.

CCS is available online for free too...Ron had posted the link in a another thread last year: https://vk.com/doc145099063_3804910...e38d0ba38ce9

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I recently acquired this Billon Denier from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was minted for Baldwin III somewhere between 1143 and 1163 AD. The attribution is CCS #10.




I hope others will free to update this thread with their new acquisitions too!

Great additions, Dave. Good to see the thread updated.
And, yes, an interesting contrast between these two Baldwin III's. Thanks for sharing.