Guy of Lusignan received Cyprus almost by accident — Richard I seized the island in 1191 en route to the Holy Land, sold it to the Templars, then sold it again to Guy after the Templars found it ungovernable. Guy's reign lasted only two years before his death in 1194, making this issue one of the shortest-lived coinages of the Crusader states. The CCS 1 attribution places it as the foundational type of an entirely new Latin kingdom, one that would outlast nearly every other Crusader entity, surviving until the Ottomans took Nicosia in 1571.
Guy of Lusignan received Cyprus almost by accident — Richard I seized the island in 1191 en route to the Holy Land, sold it to the Templars, then sold it again to Guy after the Templars found it ungovernable. Guy's reign lasted only two years before his death in 1194, making this issue one of the shortest-lived coinages of the Crusader states. The CCS 1 attribution places it as the foundational type of an entirely new Latin kingdom, one that would outlast nearly every other Crusader entity, surviving until the Ottomans took Nicosia in 1571.