Catalog
Denier - Guy de Lusignan
| Issuer | Cyprus, Kingdom of |
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| Year | 1192-1194 |
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| Diameter | 17 mm |
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| Obverse description | Facing crowned bust of the king within a beaded inner circle. The effigy is rendered in a crude, stylized manner characteristic of early Crusader coinage. A circular legend surrounds the central device, and a solid outer ring frames the rim. |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Guy of Lusignan received Cyprus almost by accident — Richard I seized the island in 1191 en route to the Holy Land, sold it to the Templars, then sold it again to Guy after the Templars found it ungovernable. Guy's reign lasted only two years before his death in 1194, making this issue one of the shortest-lived coinages of the Crusader states. The CCS 1 attribution places it as the foundational type of an entirely new Latin kingdom, one that would outlast nearly every other Crusader entity, surviving until the Ottomans took Nicosia in 1571.