Lot 3684

Description

County of Edessa, Baldwin II, regent (1119-1126), AE or billon follis or fractional denier, obv. +[STAVQIC] NIXACI legend around central cross, rev. 4 line inscription, translating as 'Baldwin Count' or similar, (MPS 15, [p.246], Metcalf -, but see p.37). Very fine for type and very rare (no more than twenty known).

Edessa (the modern Urfa in Turkey) was the first state to be captured by the first crusaders and was also the first to be lost to Zengi in the mid twelth century. All coins of Edessa are rare and most sought after by collectors of crusader coins, a collection of which is incomplete without at least one example. Writing in the Numismatic Chronicle in 1982. Roberto Pesant discusses this type and the hoard which contained the majority of the known coins, found near Edessa itself.