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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
440, Lot: 563. Estimate $150.
Sold for $340. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARMENIA, Cilician Armenia. Royal. Hetoum I. 1226-1270. AR Tram (24mm, 2.99 g, 3h). Citing the Seljuk of Rum Kaykhusraw II. Sis mint. Dated AH 641 (AD 1243/4). Hetoum on horseback riding right, head facing, holding lis-tipped scepter and reins; cross to left, crescent and pellet to right / Legend citing titles and name of Kaykhusraw II in three lines; mint formula and partial AH date around. AC 326 var. (star instead of pellet). EF, toned. Overstruck on an uncertain Islamic dirham.


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.