Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1936. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRUSADERS, Counts of Edessa? Joscelyn? 1118-1131. Æ Follis (3.10 gm, 12h). Crowned and nimbate facing bust, holding cross-septre / Cross-crosslet on steps with indeterminate legend around. Lampinen, "Imitative Issues," ACC V, p. 162; MWI 2410 (mis-attributed as Bohemund of Antioch); for similar types, cf. Pesant, "Three Additional Folles Presumably of Joscelyn of Edessa," NumCirc 1992, pp. 302-3. VF for type, dark brown patina. Very rare, possibly the third known. ($1500)

Ex Kovacs 16 (29 September 2004), lot 398.

This coin clearly belongs to the same series published by R. Pesant in several articles in NumCirc. Pesant's pieces have a similar facing bust, with reverse featuring a small cross in circle surrounded by an untranslated legend. The piece published by Lampinen is of the same type as the present piece, but from different dies. Pesant tried to interpret the legend as a corrupt Latin reference to Joscelyn of Edessa, but this identification is not universally accepted. The legends on this type are clearly not Latin, and it has been suggested they are a form of Syriac, a later adaptation of Aramaic. While some of the letter forms do resemble Syriac, no coherent translation seems possible at the present time.