Catalog
Pul countermarked Caffa's 'Gate'
| Issuer | Caffa, City of |
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| Year | |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Applied countermark of the Genoese colony of Caffa, depicting a stylized city gate with flanking towers surmounted by a central turret, struck in intaglio onto the host coin's field. The gate motif, a well-known civic emblem of Caffa (modern Feodosia, Crimea), is rendered in low relief within a roughly square punch impression. The surrounding field of the host coin retains traces of its original design, largely obscured by wear and patination. No legend accompanies the countermark itself. |
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| Mintage | ND |
| Additional information |
Caffa — the Genoese colony on Crimea's southern coast — operated under Mongol suzerainty for much of the 14th and 15th centuries, and local countermarking of Tatar puls was a practical administrative response to fluctuating monetary agreements between the commune and the khans of the Golden Horde. The 'Gate' punch specifically has been linked to Caffa's municipal authority asserting revalidation rights over coins already in circulation, effectively taxing or guaranteeing the local exchange value without producing new flans.
Retowski's 1905 corpus remains the foundational reference for Caffan countermarks, and attribution disputes for borderline specimens persist among specialists to this day.