John of Brienne led the Fifth Crusade's capture of Damietta in November 1218, and coinage was struck there during the brief Crusader occupation that followed. The mint operated for less than three years before Sultan al-Kamil retook the city in 1221 — a negotiated surrender that reportedly included the return of a fragment of the True Cross, though that relic never materialized. The window for production was narrow enough that surviving examples from Damietta are genuinely scarce, not merely catalogued as such.
John of Brienne led the Fifth Crusade's capture of Damietta in November 1218, and coinage was struck there during the brief Crusader occupation that followed. The mint operated for less than three years before Sultan al-Kamil retook the city in 1221 — a negotiated surrender that reportedly included the return of a fragment of the True Cross, though that relic never materialized. The window for production was narrow enough that surviving examples from Damietta are genuinely scarce, not merely catalogued as such.