This coin depicts the Tower of David, the citadel on the western side of Jerusalem. The Tower was used here by the city’s Latin rulers as a symbol of military might and to draw on a powerful historical source of royal authority to legitimise their new regime.
Metcalf, David Michael. Coinage of the Crusades and the Latin East in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. London: Royal Numismatic Society, 1995. Pages 53-57
Exhibition history
Holy City, Holy War: Devotion to the Sacred in Crusader Jerusalem, Museum of the Order of St John, 2 September 2017-22 December 2017
Credit line
The Mildred King Memorial Collection. Gift of Colonel E.J. King, 1935