ARMENIA, Cilician Armenia. Royal. Levon I, 1198-1219. Denier (Billon, 17 mm, 0.51 g, 6 h), coronation issue. Sis, 1198. ✠ RЄX ARMЄNOR Facing bust of Levon I, wearing crown with pendilia and necklace. Rev. ✠ LЄO DЄI GRATIA Cross pattée. AC 10. CCA 281 var. (ARMENIOR). S. Moeller: Eine neue Bewertung der Deniers von König Levon I. von Kilikisch-Armenien, in: NNB 65/1 (2016), pp. 93-94, and idem: Neue Überlegungen zur Münzreform König Levons I. (1187-1219) von Armenien, in: GN 304 (2019), pp. 208-213. Very rare and in exceptional condition for this difficult issue. Light areas of weakness, otherwise, good very fine.



This coin is Levon's only denier bearing Latin legends and titles, and as such, it is of particular interest. Though struck in Sis, Bedoukian has suggested that it was intended for circulation in Antioch, had the great Crusader city been captured by the king. However, S. Moeller has recently challenged this theory, arguing that a permanent incorporation of Antioch into the Armenian realm would have led to an unsustainable break with the Pope and the Crusader states, and was therefore beyond Levon's ambitions. Instead, Moeller links the issue to Levon's coronation as king in 1198 - an epochal event in Armenian history - celebrated in Sis in the presence of the papal legate, Archbishop Conrad of Mainz. He proposes that these exceptionally rare Latin deniers may have been distributed to Levon’s Western supporters on the occasion of the coronation, while the more common coins bearing Armenian inscriptions were intended for his local subjects.