Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 874. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $625. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Uncertain. 14th-15th century. AV Fiorino d’oro (3.51 g, 6h). Crusader imitation of Firenze mint. Uncertain mint; mm: uncertain (bird flying right[?]). Struck circa 1331 or later. +FLOR ENTIA, ornate lily of Florence / • S • IOИA NNES B, nimbate St. Giovanni Battista standing facing, wearing cloak, holding cross scepter and raising right hand; bird flying right(?) at end of legend. Cf. CNI XII 216 (segna 89); Bernocchi -; cf. Biaggi 787. Near VF, a few deposits. One of two reported examples.

From the B.R. Bell Collection.

The mint mark (segna) at the end of the reverse legend is unclear. It resembles a bird taking flight upwards to the right. However, when compared to the tables of segni in CNI, the only analogous mark is segna 89 (crossed laurels) of Jacopo Alberti del Gindice, 1st semester, 1331. The style of the present coin is clearly imitative, and most likely Levantine. It would appear that there were early experiments with coining the Fiorino (Florin) in the East prior to the gradual adoption of the Ducato d’Oro (Venetian Ducat) as the standard imitative trade coin of the region a couple decades later. At least one Florentine style Fiorino is documented for Omar Beg, Amir of Aydin (Aidin), 1341-1348. See also De Mey Le Moyen Age d’or 5a.