1 Kardez - Hetoum I solid border, seated on bench type

Hetoum I ruled Cilician Armenia for over four decades, a reign defined by a calculated submission to Mongol suzerainty in 1247 — a diplomatic gamble that bought the kingdom a generation of relative stability while its neighbors were devastated. His personal visit to the Great Khan Möngke at Karakorum in 1254 secured an alliance that shaped the entire subsequent history of the Crusader states and the Armenian kingdom alike. The copper kardez coinage of his reign circulated through a commercially active coastal kingdom with strong trading ties to Genoese and Venetian merchants operating out of Sis and Ayas.

Bedoukian's numbering across 1400–1403 distinguishes die variations within the type rather than separate emissions.