Cypress AE Denier / Carzia / Sezin ?

[irish]

hello everyone thanks in advance for help with this:

it appears to be a cypriot ae denier/carzia/sezin from later 1300's, like quite a few showing in my malloy book (Coins of the crusader states) though this coin has some variations which are confusing

 i cannot nail it down

it has lion rampant left, tail is obliterated or obscured/unstruck, legend readable along side of lion seems to be + -- ERLM with the lettering being gothic type, L looks like backward J, M is bulbed, E

borders of designs both sides are solid not beaded

other side has cross with 5 pointed stars in all quadrants -- discernible lettering there toward bottom appears to be ULUP with the L appearing almost like a 2...these letters are between 6 and 10 oclock if i have it oriented correctly

there are a lot of cypriot crusader coins with lion rampant left, but the only coins with 5 pointed star in quads (That i can find) are issues of Bohemond III, Antioch, appearing only with fleur de lis...

b

[Manzikert]

Hi Irish

The reason the legend looks garbled is because it is in Armenian script, not latin: this is a kardez of (I think) Levon II from Armenia, see http://www.mehmeteti.150m.com/armenians/hs037.htm

If it had been Cypriot there would have been small crosses between the arms of the cross on the reverse, not stars.

Best wishes

Alan

[irish]

Alan thanks!  it was sold as armenian but also sold as crowned emperor obverse, though the lion is plainly visible once conserved, and in fact it is an s shaped tail pointing outward, i have seen that since then

it does not show in the crusader coinage of levon II, which was th ebay attribution as well, but i am going to the link right now so thanks a lot

the darned bohemond III coins with the 5 pointed stars in fields around cross are almost exact, just another little bit of fun for me i guess

thanks again

b