Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 879. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Venetians in the Levant. AV Ducat (3.35 g, 6h). Imitating Venice. Uncertain mint. Proto ‘K Series’(?), struck in the name of Andrea Dandolo, 1344-1354. S/R/V/Є/R/Є/T/I D/V/+ ΛNDK DΛRDVL (VL ligate) O, St. Mark standing right, holding Gospels and presenting flag (type 2) to Doge kneeling left / • SIT . T +PЄ • D • Λ • TQ TV KЄGIS ISTЄ DVЄ • ΛT •, Christ standing facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels, surrounded by elliptical halo containing five stars to left, five to right. Cf. CNI VII 37; Ives -; Schlumberger -; cf. Bell 9, 32, 33, and 36 (for similar flag type). VF, struck with rusty obverse die.

From the B.R. Bell Collection.

This coin is important in demonstrating the early presence of a ‘K’ in the reverse legend at 6:30. On the basis of style, the ‘K’ series may begin about 1382 or slightly earlier.

The ‘K Series’ Ducats

The ‘K series’ ducats were struck in the Asia Minor Littoral, or more precisely Smyrna. The Smyrnaean association is with the Knights Hospitaller, placing the issue after 1371, although they appear in the Chios hoard of 1435. The type saw rapid debasement to a rather pale electrum (between 10K and 14K gold). Because of this debasement, some scholars believe the ‘K series’ to be a necessity issue from a travelling military mint, likely to pay soldiers fighting for the Genoese. It is possible that the composition is from locally available electrum alloys, or perhaps even a recoining of the relatively unreliable Byzantine and Arabic gold coinage then available. The slightly larger diameter of these coins evolved to keep the wieght up to standard when using depleted alloys. The use of the ornate letter ‘X’ in the legends suggests an issue date after 1382. This type was once attributed to Robert d’Anjou of Achaia in the 1340s, an attribution already considered dubious by the 1950s.