The Press Democrat from Santa Rosa, California • 53

CORNER from 1186 to 1192 and Jerusalem was captured by Saladin in 1187. Guy's derniers show the facing head of the king and the cupola of the church. Acre was the most important city then, and coins still were struck with the conventional designs by Amaury II, who ruled from 1197 to 1205. Succession to the throne was much disputed in the 13th Cen By FRANK GRAE4M Copley News Service The little empire of Trebizond was founded on the Black Sea in 1204 by Alexius Comnenus, a member of the imperial Byzantine family, and remained in existence until it was captured by the Turks in 1461. Its coinage seems fo have begun in the reign of John (1235-1238) and is of pieces known as aspers which have a typical flat fabric.

The designs, which remained virtually the same through Trebizond's history, show the emperor, standing, on the obverse and a figure of St Eu-genius on the reverse. From approximately 1300 on, the same figures are shown on horseback and half-pieces of both varieties were struck in most reigns. In the later reigns, a coinage of small bronze pieces, slightly scyphate, accompany the aspers. The designs of the bronze pieces are most commonly the standing figure of the emperor and a cross and the letters of the name of St. Eugenius in the angles.

The first Crusade, In 1056, ostensibly was to aid the Byzantine empire against the attacks of the Seljuk Turks and to secure and make accessible to pilgimage the holy places of Christendom. Jerusalem was, of course, the most important of the Crusader states in the Levant, but its coinage, of which little has survived, is not impressive. Goeffrey de Bouillon captured Jerusalem in 1099 and the title of king of Jerusalem first was assumed by his brother and successor, Baldwin, in 1100. Under Amaury who ruled from 1162 until 1173, began the coinage series proper. This consisted at first entirely of der-niers and obols in billon after the style of the French feudal series and designs for Amaury and several monarchs which bore the name of Baldwin.

They showed a cross surrounded by the king's name with a representation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the reverse with the inscription "De Jerusalem." Guy de Lusignane reigned tury. It passed to the kings of Cyprus in 1286 and Acre, the last fortress, was captured by the Saracens in 1291..