An Unrecorded Bohemian Saint Christopher Penny from Montmusard, Acre

Abstract

A hitherto unpublished Czech penny was unearthed during salvage excavations in ʽAkko’s
Crusader-period Montmusard quarter. A detailed analysis of the coin’s inscriptions,
iconography and weight suggests that it was minted by the Bohemian king Přemysl-
Otokar II in 1248 or later. The coin exhibits the earliest use of the title of rex Boemorum
and a previously unobserved contemporaneous veneration of Saint Christopher in
Bohemia. It is an important historical document both of Otokar II’s intentions to create a
unified Bohemian state and of the multiple contacts between Bohemia and the Latin East
in the thirteenth century.