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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;willieboyd2, post: 3649264, member: 4910&quot;]I would vote &#039;9&#039; on <b>lordmarcovan</b>&#039;s Sicily Guglielmo coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a similar Crusader coin with Islamic legends:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.brianrxm.com/posts/post_crusader_dinar_fatimid.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem gold Bezant</p><p>Gold, 20 mm, 3.90 gm, struck AD 1148-1187 (similar size and weight to a US $2.50 coin)</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1095 when Pope Urban II launched the Crusades, gold coins had not been struck or used Europe for centuries.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the Crusaders arrived in the Holy Land they discovered that gold coins were used there, either Byzantine issues or coins made by the Moslem Fatimid empire in Cairo, Egypt.</p><p><br /></p><p>Crusaders established kingdoms in Palestine, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and began minting gold coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>These coins were copies of Moslem Fatimid coins, down to the Kufic legends promoting Islam as the true religion. The first coins were direct copies, as time went on the legends became less clear.</p><p><br /></p><p>In AD 1250 Pope Innocent IV (AD 1243-1254) ordered the Crusaders to stop making coins with Islamic legends and they began putting Christian legends on their coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>An odd reason for wanting a coin, but after reading Harold Lamb&#039;s books on the Crusades, I had to get one.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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