152 



Description of a Copper Coin of Leo, Sfc. [No. 39, 



In some of the works lately published on the Numismatics of 

 ancient states, we meet with descriptions of several coins belong- 

 ing to the Armenian nation. It is much to be regretted that we 

 do not possess the medals of the early Kings of that people : the 

 coins that have been preserved to us are few in number, mostly sil- 

 ver ; and they appertain to the Arsacidoe sovereigns — who ruled in 

 Armenia from about B. C. 150 to the fifth century of the Christian 

 era. The legends on these pieces are in Greek, bearing the names 

 of Arsames, Tigranes, Artases, Artavasdes and other Kings of 

 that dynasty : these have been ably described by the learned Vis- 

 conti in the second volume of his " Iconographie Grecque but he 

 is mistaken in supposing that they comprehend all the coins that 

 are extant belonging to the Armenian monarchs. Among the 

 pieces with Armenian inscriptions, those struck by the Reubenian 

 princes, who governed in Cilicia from the eleventh to the four- 

 teenth century, deserve particular notice, especially on account of 

 their rarity. The celebrated Italian Numismatist, Domenico Ses- 

 tini, has described some of them with great accuracy ; and a work 

 professedly on Armenian Numismatics has been composed by M. 

 Brosset entitled " Monographic des Monnaies Armeniennes" Two 

 dissertations on the Reubenian coins have, I perceive, recently 

 appeared on the continent : one the production of Professor A. 

 KrafFt, originally inserted in the Annals of Vienna, but subse- 

 quently printed in a separate form under the title of " Arme- 

 nische Munzen der Rupenischen Dynastie in Cilicioen" Vienna, 

 1843: the other, in French, entitled " Essai sur les monnaies des 

 Hois Armeniens de la dynastie de JRoupene" by M. Victor Lang- 

 lois, printed at Paris in 1850, from the Revue Archeologique. I re- 

 gret that I had not the advantage of consulting the above Treatises 

 in preparing this paper. 



The coin that I purpose to describe belongs to the Reubenian 

 series. It is a copper piece, and contains the legends in Armenian 

 characters. The inscription on the obverse is Levon thagavor 

 Haiots " Leon, (Leo) King of the Armenians/* and in the centre is 

 the representation of a lion's head crowned, in allusion to his name ; 

 the words on the reverse are Sheneal i haghakn i Sis " made 

 (struck) in the city of Sis," with the emblems of & double cross and 



