I got this from Heritage last nite at 11:00PM! AV Tari d'oro ND Palermo Mint Ruggero II (Roger II) King of Sicily 13mm. 1.19g. .667 obv. Pellet/ Kufic Legend rev. Cross/ Pseudo-kufis legend IC-XC-NI-KA Spahr 66 The Normans conquered Sicily from the Fatimids in 1056, fron there they seized more lands from the Byzantines, setting up Crusaders States in Greece, the Levant Thiscoin is the finest example I have ever seen in auctions, quite common but hard to find in great quality.
Nice! I love these. There's just not too much affordable medieval hammered gold out there. So what if they're small. These are extremely historical and interesting. I like the cross-cultural aspect of them, since they combine Islamic (Kufic) script with Christian iconography, which is interesting given the background of the Crusades that were going on at the time. I got mine last summer. I liked it for the contrasting earthen patina. There's still a little bit of Sicilian dirt on there! I left it there, too. I had been having some bad luck with "details" grades when I submitted other hammered gold last year, so I was happy to break the jinx when this one came back straight-graded as PCGS VF35. Sicily (Norman Kings): gold tari of Guglielmo I ("William the Bad"), ca. 1154-1166 AD PCGS VF35; population 1 with none higher- the only example graded by PCGS as of 3/27/2019.
