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1 Follaro - Roger II Mary
| Issuer | Kingdom of Sicily (Italian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1150 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Frontal bust of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) depicted in Byzantine orant style, shown facing forward with a nimbus encircling the head. The Virgin is rendered in a hieratic, stylized manner characteristic of Norman-Sicilian coinage blending Byzantine artistic traditions. The infant Christ appears before her in the lower field, held against her chest. Greek nomina sacra abbreviations ΜΡ and ΘΥ (Meter Theou, Mother of God) appear flanking the figure to left and right respectively. The design is contained within a beaded inner border following the polygonal flan. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Roger II modeled this follaro on Fatimid copper coinage still circulating in Sicily decades after the Norman conquest — a deliberate acknowledgment that Arabic-speaking Muslims remained the majority population of the island and a functional monetary concession to their commercial habits. His court at Palermo operated in Arabic, Greek, and Latin simultaneously, and the coinage reflected that trilingual administration rather than imposing a purely Latin framework on a conquered people.
Roger died in 1154, placing this issue in the final years of his reign.