Queen Jelena Mrnjavcevic, wife of King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic (1365-1388)
Silver "4 lines" coin. 16mm, 0.967g.
Obverse: In 5 lines Serbian Cyrillic legend: +БΛAΓO IBЋPNA KPAΛH ObЦА (BLAGOVERNA KRALJICA ("PIOUS QUEEN"))
Reverse: Christ in Glory, facing, standing, holding Book of Gospels decorated with 5 gems, blessing with the right hand, IC - XC (Jesus Christ) above and 3 stars around on each side.
Reference: D 151 7 compare to Jov 18 2.1, LJ XI-7,8, J 96, J 18 1.1, I 17.3.
Comment: Most likely struck after 1371, after King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic have died fighting the Ottomans at the Battle of Maritsa. Extremely, extremely rare and hard to find coin today. Only very few examples of this variant are know to exist. Dimitrijevic is the only one that has published one example of it, please see picture below. Above 1st line there are possibly decorative marks like o T and/or a with dots.
She is also known under the name Jevrosima, Aljena and Elena and a mother of the legendary hero Prince Marko Kraljevic whose coins are even more rare and very sought after. Her death is believed to be around 1388.
According to Jovanovic there are only 12 registered examples but not this variant.
.jpg)
