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Message:: [QUOTE="seth77, post: 3731748, member: 56653"]Guy de Lusignan is generally ill-regarded historically, some of which is deserved, some just a result of things beyond his own control. But what is true and acknowledged by all is that under his rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem lost the Holy City and most of its knightly elite. On the other hand, Guy was the center of a coalition that started the siege of Acre, a fight that would soon rally the most powerful kings in Europe -- Philippe II Auguste and Richard Coeur de Lion -- to join the Third Crusade. He was hated by the German interests but rather liked in the Angevin quarters, being an old vassal of Henry II Plantagenet and, from 1191, of Richard I. His coinage is well known, from de Saulcy to Schlumberger, Metcalf and Malloy, but one aspect that I think is still unclear is where was the copper coinage bearing his name actually minted. Malloy assigns this coinage to the Latin Kingdom, but he is not sure whether it is pre-Hattin or minted by a military mint during the siege of Acre (Malloy p. 57-8). Although interesting, these coins are not really much to look at. [ATTACH=full]1000605[/ATTACH]This spec is ex Baldwin's London Sale 2, Lot 58, 04/17/2000, ex Jean Elsen <a href="https://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=2700496&AucID=2637&Lot=662&Val=47fcd0cddd8873dd2d8d41bcd132c138" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=2700496&AucID=2637&Lot=662&Val=47fcd0cddd8873dd2d8d41bcd132c138" rel="nofollow">Auction 133 Lot 662</a> AE18mm, 0.90g, copper fractional denier or pougeoise+ REX GUIDO D; bust facing, wearing crown with pendilia, pellet to l and r.+ E IERVSALEm; Church of the Holy Sepulchre with rounded dome.Malloy 32a, Schlumberger III 25, de Saulcy IX 4, 5, Metcalf 628. Let's check out the hypotheses about the origins and circumstances of this issue: 1. It might be a heavily debased denier/fractional/pougeoise minted at Jerusalem for King Guy between his coronation in the summer of 1186 and his capture at Hattin in July 1187. 2. It might be an issue of necessity, minted under his authority at the siege of Acre around 1189-1191. 3. It might be a pougeoise issue, minted in the Holy Land for Guy but for use in Cyprus where he was instated as Lord with Richard Plantagenet's support in 1192, an issue of similar scope and struck at probably the same time with Henry de Champagne when he began minting his copper coinage at Acre. 4. It was minted in Cyprus for Guy between 1192 and 1194. Any of these possibilities might be true, with some being more likely than others. For instance the minting during the siege of Acre by a crusader coalition is not very likely as the conditions in the crusader camp were hard and not very suitable for a minting operation. Also the written sources mention nothing about such an endeavor. The minting of these copper coins during the reign of Guy as King of Jerusalem before Hattin is, again, not impossible, but not very likely, as the kingdom had its immobilized billon coinage, which had started under King Amalric in the 1160s. The type was continued after the death of Amalric in 1174 by his heirs until around 1187 and then re-started around 1200, in lower standard and dimensions, and kept as the Kingdom's regular coinage until around the early 1230s. The more likely hypotheses are 3 or 4, or even a combination of both: a type that started around May 1192 or even earlier(?) alongside the coinage for Henry, after the crusaders had regained Acre in July 1191, and then was moved to Cyprus as the official coinage of Guy as Seigneur. There are 3 variations of this type, which might suggest a more consistent use, and three different issues. These coins were also found both on the crusader mainland and in Cyprus. Guy had to give up the coastal kingdom as a result of the death of Sybilla and their two daughters in the pandemic that swept both the Crusader and the muslim camp from late summer 1190 to early 1191. He did maintain his position as leader of the Crusader coalition until Richard reached Acre and he was also present in Cyprus, where he took part in its conquest by Richard (early summer 1191) and attended the wedding between Richard and Berengaria de Navarre on May 12 1191 in Limassol. Guy ended up with the island in 1192 after it had been returned by the Templars, and Guy was forced to relinquish all claims to the mainland Latin Kingdom. He ruled it as Seigneur (Lord) until 1194.[/QUOTE]

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