Two Bilingual Trams

440, Lot: 562. Estimate $100. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARMENIA, Cilician Armenia. Royal. Hetoum I. 1226-1270. AR Tram (23mm, 2.77 g, 12h). Citing the Seljuk of Rum Kayqubad I. Hetoum on horseback riding right, head facing, holding lis-tipped scepter and reins; cross to left / Name and title of ruler Kayqubad I; star in field. AC 316. VF, toned.

The Armenian bi-lingual coinage was the product of a 1228 peace treaty wherein Hetoum acknowledged the Seljuq sultans of Konya as overlords in return for the cessation of attacks on Armenian territory. Hetoum abrogated the treaty in 1245 upon the death of Kaykhusraw, when he made another agreement with the emergent Mongol empire. In any case, the Seljuqs were pushed aside by the Mamluqs expanding out of Egypt, and when they attacked Armenia in 1266, the Mongols provided little assistance to Hetoum, who abdicated in favor of his son in 1270.