★ A very rare issue of Raymond-Roupen ★

CRUSADERS. Antioch. Raymond-Roupen, 1216-1219. AE (Bronze, 15 mm, 0.63 g). Head of Raymond-Roupen in chain armour with pellet eye to right, wearing helmet decorated with cross and flanked by two palm branches. Rev. Gate containing nine pellets, all within octafoil. CCS 100. Metcalf, Crusades, 481. Wäckerlin 156 var. (with five pellets). Very rare. Very fine.

Raymond-Roupen was a son of Alice of Armenia and Raymond IV of Antiochia, who, with the help of his grand-uncle Levon I of Armenia, overthrew Bohémond IV in 1216. However, when Levon I died three years later, Bohémond returned and Raymond-Roupen, who had sought refuge in the citadel of Antioch, fled to Cilicia after handing the fortress over to the Hospitallers. There he claimed the vacant Cilician throne, but he was captured with his mother in Tarsus by Constantine of Baberon, the regent for Queen Isabella, who was Levon's infant daughter and successor. The unlucky prince Raymond-Roupen died in Cilician captivity somewhat later, either in 1221 or 1222.