Huszár 550 var., Pohl --, Unger 434b var., Réthy II 91 var.

Hungary. Louis I (Lajos I, in Hun.) (1342-1382). AR denar.

Obv: + MOnETA LODOVICI (counterclockwise and partially retrograde legend), Saracen head right.

Rev: + REGIS hVnGARIE (counterclockwise and partially retrograde legend), Patriarchal cross with random pellets, crown–crown (privy mark) in lowest fields.

Struck in Buda (now Budapest), ca. 1373-1382 (per Huszár & Unger, although Huszár later wrote that the Saracen-head coinage incepted in 1372). Mint and moneyer unknown. Said to possibly be a contemporary counterfeit by Pohl.

Huszár rarity rating 7. This appears to be an uncommon variety of the emission in that the legends on the standard coin are clockwise without retrograde letters. It is neither described nor depicted in any of the catalogs.

The Saracen's head is a pun on the surname of Jacobus Saracenus (Szerechen, in Hun.) and his brother, Johannes, courtiers of Italian descent who were ennobled by Louis. The image of a Saracen's head appeared on their coat of arms. Jacobus became the kammergraf at the Pécs mint in 1352, and the Comes Camerarum Regalium in 1369. He died in the early 1370s, at which time Johannes succeeded him as kammergraf.