Templar coins??

[JBF]

Is there such a thing as Templar coins?  By Knights Templar coins, I mean coins issued during the Crusades or the Middle Ages, issued by the Templars, and identifiable as such.  Not "coins that a templar might have held in his hand," or other such nebulous description.  "Someone" claimed a coin had a templar cross on it, and 'therefore' must be a templar coin, not sure I buy that (in fact I don't buy it, even if it were a Templar coin, this whole thing came up in a history forum, which is why I am looking into it.)

[Sap]

The Knights Hospitallier issued their own coins, from the various territories they controlled long after the Crusades were over, but the Templars didn't own territory or control a mint, so no, the Templars didn't issue their own coins. Most coins issued in the Crusader states in the Levant were issued in the names of the King of Jerusalem and the various principalities.

The "Templar Cross" was a cross pattee or cross potent, in heraldic terminology; lots of European countries used such cross symbols on their coin and they are not necessarily of Crusader origin. Most notably, Spanish and Portuguese coins both usually featured prominent crosses of this shape.

We'd really need to see a pic of the actual coin in question to identify it.

[Meepzorp]

Hi folks,

I agree with Sap. I think he stated it best.

I don't ever recall coming across a coin that was issued by the Knights Templar.

As far as the Knights Hospitaller are concerned, I know that they issued coins because I have a few of them (specifically, Colonial Genoese, Rhodes). They have some variation of the word "hospital" in the legend.

Feel free to look at my Colonial Genoese coins (specifically Rhodes), which are located in the Medieval Italy section of my website.

Meepzorp

[JBF]

This is from the History Channel [American Cable TV] show on 'excavations' at Oak Island 'pit' (my word).  This is one of those locations that people think there is buried treasure (or pirate treasure).  The people on the show were passing around a coin which supposedly had a cross on it (I couldn't see it, but it is just something they are handling not something that they actually zoom in and show.)  One guy said it had a templar cross on it, and he 'should' know because he is a Mason.  They implied it was a templar coin, or perhaps they actually said it was a templar coin (because it has a templar cross on it.  So, the question occurred to me, "is there actually some thing that is a templar coin?"  Googling it, there were ads for selling 'templar coins" but in the fine print these were all "coins that could have been used by Templars, not it seems, coins made by the Templars.

Apparently, there is a rather tenuous notion that the templars got to the New World.  It would be interesting if the Oak Island site could actually reveal somet hing (Templar or otherwise), but the whole thing has been dug up before in trying to find stuff.  The pit is quite close to the water level, and so digging it has been very difficult.  Forget about stratigraphy.  This show is about as historical as the powers of the Crystal skulls, or visitations of ancient aliens, but people believe in those things also.  My purpose is merely on this history forum I am on, to debunk that this is a "Templar coin" whatever it is that they found, whether it be on Oak Island, or on the internet.

[mross]

Just came across this post. I know it's old. I saw the same show as described. It's on Netflix. They came right out and said the Knights Templar minted their own coins. They did show a picture it was a cross with 4 dots in on it. One in each quadrant. I too am curious if they did mint their own. I have however not found a single reference source to support the shows claim.