1/2 Tahekan - Leo I

Leo I was crowned King of Armenian Cilicia in January 1198 by a representative of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, a deliberate political alignment that brought the Armenian kingdom formally into the Latin sphere at a moment when Crusader states were fracturing around it. The gold coinage issued under his reign — including this half tahekan — drew heavily on Western European coin types rather than Byzantine models, a conscious departure that signaled diplomatic orientation as much as aesthetic preference.

Bedoukian 49 is among the better-documented fractions of the series.