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Drama - Rusudan I Ⴔ on the obverse
| Issuer | Kingdom of Georgia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1230 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Nimbate frontal bust of Jesus Christ enclosed within a beaded or linear circle, his left hand holding the Book of Gospels; Greek abbreviated legends 'IC XC' (Iesous Christos) flank the bust on either side with titla (abbreviation marks) above. A Nuskhuri Georgian inscription surrounds the central circle forming the outer legend, incorporating a symbol resembling the Greek letter Phi (Ⴔ) as an integral element of the inscribed text rather than a countermark. The overall design follows the Byzantine iconographic tradition standard for medieval Georgian coinage. |
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| Reverse script | Arabic, Georgian (Nuskhuri) |
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| Additional information |
Rusudan I ruled Georgia under enormous pressure — the Mongol invasions of the 1220s had shattered the kingdom her brother George IV had inherited from their mother Tamar, forcing the court to flee Tbilisi entirely. This coin was struck at the Drama mint (in present-day northern Greece, then under Georgian commercial influence) during precisely that period of territorial collapse and internal crisis. The choice to continue minting silver with royal titulature was as much a political act as a fiscal one.
The Ⴔ monogram is the Georgian letter for "P," standing for Rusudan — a rare instance of Georgian script appearing on coinage struck outside the Caucasus heartland.