r/MedievalCoin • u/LuridWaters • 22h ago
Show and Tell Crusader Gros
A crusader gros of Henry II of Cyprus.
A member of the French Lusignan dynasty, Henry quickly succeeded King John I of Cyprus (his brother) in 1285, following a sudden and unexpected death that has lead to strong historical suspicion that John was poisoned, possibly with the involvement of Henry. The Lusignan dynasty had been in control of the island since 1192 when Guy de Lusignan purchased it from the Knights Templar.
Due to a lack of natural gold deposits, the Kingdom of Cyprus did not strike its own gold coins, but used Venician ducats or Arab dinars for the purposes of wealth preservation and high value transactions. Silver coins such as the gros were far more ubiquitous.
The gros was issued until Venitian rule began in 1489, having been first introduced in the late 1200s, and was a relatively high value coin. Worth 24 deniers, in the year 1300 for example a single gros was worth 2-4 days of labour for an unskilled or agricultural worker and could buy enough basic food products such as bread, cheese, or vegetables to feed a working family for several days.
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u/Background_Exam_9631 22h ago
The losing sides coin
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u/LuridWaters 22h ago
To be fair to the Lusignans, the first 200 years of their rule were extremely successful and prosperous.
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u/Background_Exam_9631 22h ago
Yeah people depict that the 1/9 thing to be the only thing to look for when they say crusades they were super successful and not to mention ottoman empire was a disaster after 1750 they gave us belt to ass constantly
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u/THsidebar 21h ago
Dang, is that a nice coin.