Seleucid Bronze, Crusader Follis and Seljuk Horseman Fals, Lot of 3 Coins

Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, Seleucid Kingdom, Crusader Antioch, and Seljuks of Rum. A trio of small struck coins tracing fifteen centuries of contested ground between the Orontes and Anatolia. The smallest, bronze, likely a Seleucid issue of Antiochus II Theos, pairs the laureate head of Apollo with a tripod flanked by monograms above a horizontal anchor, the dynastic badge of the house of Seleucus. The middle piece, copper, is possibly a follis of Crusader Antioch struck for Tancred as regent, showing Saint Peter standing frontally with raised hand and cross, the reverse a cross with letters in the angles. The largest, a leaded bronze fals, is plausibly an issue of the Seljuks of Rum under Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw I, bearing a sword-wielding horseman on a rearing mount amid stars. Small change, minted by Greek kings, Frankish lords, and Turkish sultans in turn. The anchor beneath the tripod is the Seleucid family sign: Appian reports that Seleucus I was said to bear an anchor-shaped birthmark, and the device became the dynasty's mark on coin and seal alike, while Apollo, claimed as the line's divine ancestor, supplied the obverse portrait and the Delphic tripod on the reverse. The Antioch follis belongs to the numismatic aftermath of the First Crusade. Tancred, nephew of Bohemond I, governed the principality during his uncle's captivity and again after 1101, and the copper coinage struck in his name is one of the earliest Latin issues of the Levant, its Greek-inflected image of Saint Peter, first bishop of Antioch, aimed squarely at a largely Orthodox and Armenian population. The horseman fals of the Seljuks of Rum stands apart from the aniconic norm of Islamic coinage. Kay Khusraw I and his successors at Konya issued figural bronzes, lion-and-sun types and mounted warriors among them, drawing on Byzantine, Turkic steppe, and astrological vocabularies at once. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 204848

Estimate:$200

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