Crusaders. Kingdom of Jerusalem AV Dinar or Bezant. Acre, date off flan, mid to late 13th century. Abbreviated Arabic legends: in central field in two lines (One God); inner margin: (:+: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); outer margin: [Struck in Acre in the year one thousand two hundred, one and … from the incarnation of the Messiah] / Large cross pattée; Arabic legends: in outer [We are glorified by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah from Whom we receive out salvation and life]; in inner margin: (:+: and resurrection, and through whom we are delivered and pardoned). CCS p. 119, 6; Balog & Yvon 40; Metcalf 1995, 142-5; Schlumberger pl. 5, 27; Duplessy 196 (Louis IX). 2.84g, 21mm.

Good Very Fine. Very Rare.

Acquired from London Ancient Coins Ltd.

The Latin kings of Jerusalem struck imitative debased gold ‘besanti sarracenati’ modelled on the dinars of the Fatimid caliph al-Amir (1101-1130) from about 1148 until 1250, when they attracted the censure of the papal legate Eudes of Châteauroux, who came to Acre with Louis IX. He found it scandalous that Christians should be striking coins bearing ‘the name of Mohamed and the number of years from his nativity’. The designs were promptly changed with a prominent cross and legends in Arabic proclaiming the Christian faith of the Holy Trinity with dates ‘from the incarnation of the Messiah’, from 1251 to 1258, however, the dates on the outer margins of the coins are usually illegible.