★ An Exceptional Example ★

Tancred AD 1101-1112. Antioch
Follis Æ

23mm., 5,83g.

[Ο] ΠЄ -Τ[P]-O-C, nimbate bust of St. Peter facing, raising his right hand in benediction and holding cross with his left / KЄBOI ΘHTOΔV ΛΟCOVT ANHPI ('Lord, help your servant Tancred'), [above, cross], below, cross.

good very fine, Exceptional for the issue

Malloy 3a; Metcalf 53; Porteous 16. From The Tareq Hani collection privately purchased from the K, T collection 2010

This is most likely the earliest issue struck under Tancred, a leader of the First Crusade, Norman lord from Southern Italy and nephew to Bohemond,also known by the nicknames "the mirror of knighthood" and the Prince of Galilee. Tancred took the Cross in 1096. In 1097 he also assumed the government of the Principality of Antioch when Bohemund was captured by the Turks.