Լեւոն Ա. Թագաւորին քառորդ երկդրամներն ու բիլլոնները
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2010
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Quarter double trams and billions are the rarest coins issued by King Levon I (1198-1219). The quarter double tram is a part of one-lion series of coins, which was issued at the beginning of his royal reign. His billions, both with Armenian legend and Latin legend, were struck for circulation within the principality of Crusader Antioch.
In 1962 Paul Z. Bedoukian catalogued three quarter double trams in his Coinage of Cilician Armenia. In the revised edition of this work, the census of quarter double trams remained the same. In the 1962, 1963, and 1979 editions of CCA, only the weight of one quarter double tram is reported. In 1979, in the revised edition of CCA, Bedoukian catalogued two Armenian-inscribed billions and five Latin-inscribed billions.
Since then, the number of quarter double trams has increased to five, the number of Armenian-inscribed billions of three, and the number of Latin-inscribed billions to six. There are photographs of only four of the known quarter double trams, which were struck with two observe dies and two reverse dies. The three Armenian-inscribed billions used the same observe die but the reverses were struck with three different dies. The six Latin-inscribed billions can be classified according to three different variations of the legend; they were struck with six different observe dies and six different reverse dies.
Numismatists have carried out some experiments and calculated the number of coins that can be struck with ancient and medieval dies. If we use the lowest figure, 2,000 coins for one observe die, then they struck 4,000 quarter double trams, 2,000 billions with Armenian inscription, and 12,000 billions with Latin inscription.
The survival rate quarter double trams may have been 0,1% of the billions with Armenian legend, and 0.05% of the billions with Latin legend. These figures give some idea of the very low survival rate of some of the rarest Cilician Armenian coins and the huge loss that the Armenians have sustained.
Four examples of quarter double trams have an average weight of 1.34 grams and a diameter of 17.65mm. Three examples of billions inscribed in Armenian have an average weight of 0.70 grams, and their diameter is 16.67 mm. There are six known billions inscribed in Latin; the average weight of four examples is 0.94 grams, and the diameter of 18.25mm.
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Ներսէսեան, Ե., «Լեւոն Ա. Թագաւորին քառորդ երկդրամներն ու բիլլոնները», «Հայկազեան հայագիտական հանդէս», 2010, Պէյրութ, էջ 533-551