Coin used in the Holy Land in the 1st Crusade

10 Denaro Luca. Henry III. IV or V (1039-1125). AR Denaro

Weight 0.72g

During the 1st Crusade (1096-1099), Lucca was the capital of the Marquesate of Tuscany in central Italy, owed allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire. The city was famous for its possession of the Volto Santo ("Holy Face"), a life-size wooden image of the crucified Christ said to have been carved by Nicodemus, Jesus' secret disciple.

The chronicler Raymond de Aguilers explicitly names the Lucca denarus along with six other European denars as the money that the crusaders brought with them to Jerusalem. This is why these denarii are frequently found in Israel, especially at the Crusader coastal bases in Caesarea Maritima and Acre.

It has been suggested that the first coins arrived with the Pisan fleet that assisted in the siege of Latakia in 1099 and became a favored coin of the First Crusade.

The Lucca denarius features an immobilized type of inscription originating from the late 1040s and reflecting the city's inclusion in the Holy Roman Empire. Legends name the late Emperor Henry III (1046-1056), but feature the crude and weathered monogram of Otto III (983-1002). The importance of these coins in the Crusaders' fight to reclaim the Holy Land for Western Christendom is amply illustrated by the presence of coins in large quantities in buried Middle Eastern hoards up to the time of the Second Crusade (1147-1149). .