Two Rare Macus’

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 1328. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

UNCERTAIN EUROPEAN or CRUSADER. Circa 10th-11th centuries. AVMancus (1.48 g, 6h). Imitating uncertain Umayyad dinar. Pseudo-Kufic legend of the Kalima in four lines across field; • and “amr” in degraded Arabic above; pseudo-Kufic mint formula and AH date in outer margin / Pseudo-Kufic legend continuing Kalima and caliphal name in four lines across field; VIM (M inverted) VVLSCOIINCVSL(...) (some letters retrograde) in outer margin. Cf. L. Villaronga, La moneda de Barcelona, p. 20 (Ramon Berenguer I), otherwise unpublished. Good VF, minor traces of encrustation. Extremely rare.

Although Villaronga assigns this type to the Counts of Barcelona, other examples have been discovered in Central European sites.