Cilician Armenia, Levon I (1198-1219), AR Tram Extremely Fine

Ghiyath al-Din Kaykhusraw II was the sultan of the Seljuqs of Rûm from 1237 until his death in 1246. He ruled at the time of the Babai uprising and the Mongol invasion of Anatolia. He led the Seljuq army with its Christian allies at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243 and was the last of the Seljuq sultans to wield any significant power, he died a vassal of the Mongols. Between ca. 1240–1243 a series of remarkable silver dirhams were struck in Kaykhusraw’s name depicting a lion and sun. Generally, Islamic traditions forbid representations of living things so it is very unusual to find such iconography on Islamic coins. Several explanations of the lion and sun have been offered to suggest that the images represent the constellation Leo, the astrological sign of Kaykhusraw’s beloved Georgian wife Tamar or that the lion represents Kaykhusraw and the sun Tamar. Grading Good Very Fine, these are beautiful silver coins struck around 780 years ago. Limited availability and the first time we have offered these coins.

Valence is a town in Southern France, not far from Grenoble, it is dominated by the ancient cathedral of Saint Apollinaire which was consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1095 and completed in the early 12th century. Valence had been ruled by the Bishops from around the 4th-Century, these silver deniers were issued under their authority and were widely used by the early Crusaders to fund the religious wars in the Holy Land. The obverse shows a stylised angel with spread wings resembling an eagle with the legend around VRBS VALENTIAI (Ville de Valence). The reverse shows a cross with an annulet in one quarter with the legend S APOLLINARS (Saint Apollinaire).

Béla was the only son of Duke Álmos, the younger brother of King Coloman of Hungary. Álmos devised several plots to dethrone his brother and in retaliation, according to one version of events, Coloman deprived Álmos of his duchy and also gave orders that the infant Béla should be castrated but the man who was instructed to blind them feared God and the sterility of the royal line, and therefore he castrated a dog and brought its testicles to the King! Álmos died in exile in 1127 and Coloman’s only son Stephen died in 1131 leaving Béla as the legitimate heir to the throne. Béla’s blindness prevented him from administering his kingdom without assistance and he appears to have regarded his wife Helena as co-ruler assisted by her brother Beloš. Béla’s reign was short at only 10 years, these silver denars were one of the few coins issued during his reign. They have a large cross on one side with crescents and pellets in the angles and a small cross within two circles on the reverse.