Here are three coins I bought (very cheap) in Syria when I was a teenager visiting with my parents. From left to right: Lucca (Italy), denier; Heinrich III-V (1048-1125). Obv.: + IHPERΛTOR, around large H monogram. Rev.: + EИRICVS (S horizontal), around LV-CA . Valence (France) or Holy Land imitation, denier, anonymous bishops, 12th c. Obv.: +S APOLLINARIS, cross with annulet. Rev.: +VRBS VALENTIAI, angel with spread wings, resembling an eagle. Tripoli (Lebanon), pouge, Raymond III (1152-1187) count. Obv.:+ CIVITΛS TRIPOL, eight-pointed star with annulets between rays. Rev.: + RΛMVND COMS, cross with group of three dots in second quarter. The Crusade was probably the first draft of the European Union. In those times we did not say "Europe", we said "Christianity": a union of sovereign independent kingdoms, duchies, counties, often quarrelling with each other but contributing with money and troops for a common undertaking, the liberation of Jerusalem. They had elected an otherwise obscure lord (from today's Belgium), Godfrey of Bouillon, as the leader of the expedition and future king of Jerusalem (he refused that title, accepting only Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre). The Crusaders formed a European society moving from place to place. They did everyday business within their community, using European coinage minted in France, Provence and Italy, even when in Syria. But not any coins... In his "History of the Franks who took Jerusalem", Raimund of Aguilers noted : "Erat moneta nostra haec: Pictavini, Cartenses, Mansei, Lucenses, Valentinenses, Mergoresi, et duo Pogesii pro uno istorum." : "We used this money: money of Poitiers, Chartres, le Mans, Lucca, Valence, Melgueil, each one worth two Pouges". The fact is that these 11th-12th c. local European coinages are today commonly found in the Near-East, especially the deniers of Valence. Among the three very modest coins I found in Syria, there are a Lucensis and a Valentiniensis. The third one is the smallest kind, a simple "pouge" minted in Tripoli.
