265, Lot: 473. Estimate $100. Sold for $170. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Sicilia (Regno). Guglielmo II il Buono (the Good). 1166-1189. Æ Follaro (12mm, 1.94 g, 1h). Messina mint. Name and titles of Guglielmo II in Arabic / Lion’s head facing slightly left. Travaini, Monetazione, 371; Spahr 118; MEC 14, 433-6. VF, green patina. Scarce.

Initially, Guglielmo II was under the regency of his mother, Margherita di Navarra, since he had succeeded his father, Guglielmo I, while still a young boy. Between the advent of his majority in 1171 and his death eighteen years later, Guglielmo was engaged in an agressive foreign policy designed primarily to check the Holy Roman emperor, Federico I (Barbarossa), in southern Italy. His alliances with Genova and Veneto, as well as his marriage to Joan, the daughter of Henry II of England, show his importance in European politics at the time. Furthermore, he negotiated the marriage of his aunt, Costanza, with the future emperor, Enrico IV, stipulating that that she would succede to the Sicilian throne if Guglielmo died childless. Guglielmo devoted the remainder of his reign to fighting both the Fatimids and the Byzantines, helping to prepare the way for the Third Crusade (1189-1192).