CRUSADERS. Edessa. Baldwin II, second reign, 1108-1118. Heavy Follis (Bronze, 25 mm, 5.39 g), 1108. Count Baldwin II, dressed in chain-armour and conical helmet, standing front, head to left, holding drawn sword in his right hand and shield with his left. Rev. Patriarchal cross on two-stepped base, large pellet in each upper angle, three pellets and sprig in each lower angle. Malloy 7. Metcalf p. 33, Baldwin Class 3. Porteous 6. Very rare. Taces of overstriking, otherwise, very fine.


The attribution of the type with the standing knight to Count Baldwin II is not entirely certain: Porteous attributed it to the end of the reign of Richard of Salerno, a cousin of Tancred of Antiochia, who had been appointed governor of Edessa by the latter in 1104, while Malloy places the issue to shortly after Baldwin II's return from Seljuk captivity in early fall of 1108. Our example has been overstruck on an earlier issue of Richard of Salerno bearing the inscription KЄ / BOHΘ / PIKAP /Δω (Malloy 4. Metcalf p. 33, Baldwin Class 2. Porteous 3), and a second time on another, uncertain issue with a cross on the reverse, but the reconstruction and the sequence of the overstriking is hard to establish due to the overlapping and partial obscuring of the different types. It is, in any case, a most interesting coin and certainly worthy of further research.