Need Assistance on Cyprus Hugh I?

[Simon]

Not my area but I recently got this coin. I believe it to be Hugh I Malloy 28. Am I right or am I missing something?

Weight is only 2gm, so it is light. Size 20.52mm The REX in the castle is not clear. 

Advice and opinions are very much appreciated. 

[JeandAcre]

Nope, looks from here as if you nailed it (from the first ed., 1994).  That later, elaborate castle motif is really cool; I don't have anything like it.

Except that, right, this is Henri I, 1218-1253.  Malloy is less than demonstrative about the regnal breaks.  But Henri is cool for having spanned the whole period from the Fifth Crusade, with Jean de Brienne and the first major campaign against Egypt, to the first crusade of St. Louis, with the second, disastrous one, including his being taken prisoner after Damietta.  Personally, this is my favorite interval in the whole drama.

The initial 'h' is a still funly early example of post-Romanesque letter forms transitioning to Gothic ones.  This happened later in coins than in other media; the die punches took a while to catch up.  A variant shows up in the abbreviated '+IO-h'ES: REX.' of this one of Jean de Brienne.

 

[Simon]

11 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

Nope, looks from here as if you nailed it (from the first ed., 1994).  That later, elaborate castle motif is really cool; I don't have anything like it.

Except that, right, this is Henri I, 1218-1253.  Malloy is less than demonstrative about the regnal breaks.  But Henri is cool for having spanned the whole period from the Fifth Crusade, with Jean de Brienne and the first major campaign against Egypt, to the first crusade of St. Louis, with the second, disastrous one, including his being taken prisoner after Damietta.  Personally, this is my favorite interval in the whole drama.

The initial 'h' is a still funly early example of post-Romanesque letter forms transitioning to Gothic ones.  This happened later in coins than in other media; the die punches took a while to catch up.  A variant shows up in the abbreviated '+IO-h'ES: REX.' of this one of Jean de Brienne.

Thank you @JeandAcre

I did not know there is a later edition , I thought I was lucky to get it. I also have the price guide from 1994 as well. 

Did he reattribute it in the new catalog or is there a better source to work with coins from that time?

 

Sorry for the basic questions but I am curious to learn more. 

Simon

 

[JeandAcre]

Sadly enough, I've never seen a copy of the later edition, either.  I've always preferred to assume that it didn't go far beyond peripheral expansions, and leave it at that.

...Granted, the obvious likely exception could be Frankish Greece.  As @seth77 can tell you in exhaustive detail (don't throw anything, @seth77), the research on them is very much ongoing.  ...I stay away from them; they scare me.

[seth77]

2 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Sadly enough, I've never seen a copy of the later edition, either.  I've always preferred to assume that it didn't go far beyond peripheral expansions, and leave it at that.

...Granted, the obvious likely exception could be Frankish Greece.  As @seth77 can tell you in exhaustive detail (don't throw anything, @seth77), the research on them is very much ongoing.  ...I stay away from them; they scare me.

I think that the outlines of the coinage in the Greek Frankokratia are pretty much solidly done, mostly thanks to Tzamalis and Baker. In fact if you have Baker's definitive opus on Medieval Greece you pretty much have access to the most comprehensive overview of Greek numismatics in the Medieval period.

 

2 hours ago, Simon said:

Thank you @JeandAcre

I did not know there is a later edition , I thought I was lucky to get it. I also have the price guide from 1994 as well. 

Did he reattribute it in the new catalog or is there a better source to work with coins from that time?

 

Sorry for the basic questions but I am curious to learn more. 

Simon

 

It's no doubt Malloy 28 and at 2g, it's rather on the heavy side for this type. Now on the dating of this type I am not aware of anything definitive or of new research as of late, but I have a theory regarding the minting of copper coinage in the first half of the 13th century in Cyprus relating to the 'War of the Lombards' and the defense by the Ibelins of the local barons independence against Imperial claims after Frederic II became King of Jerusalem in 1225. I think that this type was minted during John of Ibelin's regency in Cyprus or possibly early into the actual control of Henry after 1232.

Edited May 28, 2023 by seth77