Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier - Enrico VI and Costanza
| Issuer | Sicily, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1194-1197 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Tari (1060-1754) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, a plain Greek cross with equal arms occupies the central field. The cross is boldly rendered in the hammered style typical of Norman-Hohenstaufen Sicilian coinage. Surrounding the inner circle, a circular Latin legend reads the abbreviated imperial title of Henry VI. The overall design is characteristic of the late 12th-century Sicilian denier tradition, with a simple geometric motif framed by the peripheral inscription. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Henry VI's claim to Sicily came through his wife Constance, the posthumous daughter of Roger II and legitimate heir to the Norman throne — a dynastic union that horrified the Sicilian barons and the papacy alike. His conquest in 1194 was swift and brutal; the Norman noble who had held the throne, Tancred's young son William III, was blinded and castrated within months of surrender. This joint issue, naming both Henry and Constance, was as much a political instrument as a coin — an assertion that the Hohenstaufen presence in Sicily rested on legitimate Hauteville bloodline, not mere conquest.
Henry died in 1197, leaving an infant heir and a regency crisis that would consume the next decade.