Paul Šubić (Ban of Lower Land a south part of medieval Bosnia 1299-1312)
Silver "banner" type. 22mm, 1.862g.
Obverse: A bare-headed ruler receives a banner from a saint holding a book of the gospels. Latin description: DVX LP BAN MLE SNIRL (DOGE PAUL BAN MLADEN) around. + on the flag inside the square which is represented by 3 horizontal lines.
Reverse: Christ seating on a throne and holding a book of the gospels. Greek initials: C IC which should be IC XC (In Greek: Ιησους Χριστος - Jesus Christ) above. 4 triple pellets around the throne. No moneyer marks.
Reference: Job 49-2, J 51-2, Lj XVI-5, R 734
Comment: Extremely rare coin and the first coin of medieval Bosnia, minted between 1300-1308, modeled after the Venetian coins with the same doge title. The description starts on the right side DVX LP, continues in the middle BAN MLE and ends on the left side SNIRL.
It is similar to the flag or matapan type of the Serbian king Stefan Uroš II Milutin 1282-1321, with a difference that the title REX or king is on the coins and not DVX or doge.
The description is incomplete and some letters are missing, so the question is whether this coin is minted by unskilled or illiterate moneyer or it’s a contemporary forgery. In any case, it belongs to Šubić family because they were the only ones who minted the type of matapan with a description along the entire handle of the flag or banner. Venetian and Serbian matapan only have the title above directly below the flag and sometimes the moneyer mark at the bottom.
The coin is larger than the Venetian and Serbian coins of the same type with larger representations of ruler and saint. It is also slightly larger in width it’s 22mm and deviates from the Venetian standard of 2.178g +/- 1%. The money of the Serbian king Milutin also deviated from the same standard at the same time.
Jovanović saw and registered 5 coins size 21mm and weight 1.33g, 1.80g, 2.05g, 2.22g and 2.33g. Quite a big difference in weight, this coin is somewhere in between, 1.862g. The first two coins, which are the only ones with complete text in Jovanović's book, are unfortunately only drawings. (See pictures below).
His son Mladen II Subic takes over in 1312 after his fathers death and rules Bosnia until 1322. It was under the pressure of Hungarian king Charles I or Charles Robert 1301-1342, against his own will, that he passed on the title ban of Bosnia over to Stefan II Kotromanic in 1322 who was ruling northern Bosnia since 1314 and who ruled whole Bosnia then until 1353. Mladen II Subic later in the war against king Charles I lost the administration of autonomous provinces Dalmatia and Croatia as well that were within Hungarian Kingdom.
Total time that Subic family ruled Bosnia is just 23 years. Second coin editions in Bosnia were coins of ban Stefan II Kotromanic.
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