In the 14th century rulers from the Nemanjić dynasty mint ed silver dinars with their family coat of arms, which was in a form of small pillow having three balls on each corner and the head decoration (“čelenka”) which resembled the peacock feather. From the period of their Kingdom there exist six types of dinars with that coat of arms. After the Crusader’s occupation of Constantinople in 1204, Empires of Nikea and Trapezunt had been founded and the emperors of Trapezunt had taken for their coat of arms a golden double-headed eagle . When Byzantines reca ptured Constantinople, Emperor Michael VIII had introdu ced the heraldic Byzantine shield with four letters “B” between the arms of the cross . Stefan Nemanjić, the first crowned Serbian king, was crowned with the Byzantine crown, which he got from the emperor of Nikea. The appearance of that oldest Serbian crown is preserved at the portal of the Žiča monastery, as is the appearance of crown of Radoslav, heir of the throne. Crowns of kings Dragutin and Milutin, of the same form presented to him by emperor Andronicus, while in the Studenica monastery we can see the new Milutin’s crown. At that time king Mlutin had adopted his royal title “Stefan Uroš by the Grace of God King and the sole ruler of all the Serbian and Littoral Lands.” After his marriage with Byzantine princes Simonida, king Milutin started to use the double-headed eagle as the decorative element, and after the visit of his brother-in-law Dimitry in 1313, king Milutin had taken the new crown and in troduced the new family coat of arms, depicting double-headed eagle. As the Byzantines used the same coat of arms since 1282, king Milutin had placed silver (white) eagle on the red (purple) base. From that time until now, red and white have been used as the Serbian heraldic colors. The oldest preserved Serbian coat of arms (from 1314) comes from the Žiča monastery and it is kept today in the National Museum in Belgrade.
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