UkrainiiVityaz

I'll do a post for Charles I(1625-1649) in the near future. The 17th century in Britain was rather rough on it's inhabitants, Civil War, religious wars, the Glorious Revolution, the Commonwealth etc.

Merk started out as mark, Scotland traded with the Hanseatic League early on - in fact one of William Wallace's very rare seals is on a trade document seeking trade with German traders.

In normal circumstances Charles II would have immediately ascended the throne upon the demise of his predecessor, however Britain during the period of the 1640's through 1660 could hardly be described in any stretch of the imagination as normal. Charles was the eldest son of Charles I, and was 12 years of age whence the Civil War began in earnest. At the tender age of 15 he assumed command of soldiers in the West of England. Shortly thereafter as the fortunes of war changed, Charles left England for continental Europe in 1646. Whilst living in Holland in 1648 Charles learned of the death of his father at the hands of the Parliamentarians that year. Shortly thereafter he was proclaimed King in Jersey, and thence in Scotland with the provision that he accept the Scottish Covenant. The acceptance of the Scottish Covenant was anathema to many in England, which Charles II dearly wanted to assume said throne of. Religious fervor during this time betwixt Catholics, Presbyterians, and Anglicans cause much of the behind the scenes dissension during the Civil War. Charles skillfully and somewhat ambiguously affected a treaty with the Scots in which he assumed the throne of Scotland but left the door open for differing religious opinions. Very shortly thereafter Charles II returned to Scotland where he was crowned at Scone on Scottish New Years day 1651. After narrowly escaping Cromwell's forces in Worcester, he made his way back to the Continent, from where he traveled extensively and enlisted support for his cause. The demise of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 and the subsequent inability of his son, Richard Cromwell to exercise his authority left a power vacuum waiting to be filled, and Charles II was the willing contestant. His march into London in May 1660 was met with very little opposition, in fact many were enthusiastic to see the probability of stability returning to their lives. Charles was married in 1662 to Katherine of Braganza, by whom he fathered 3 children all stillborn. He had numerous extramarital affairs(at least 7 are recorded) and produced 16 children of at the very least questionable legitimacy. Charles II religion is subject to debate even to this day, he publicly professed Protestantism, however it has been suggested by some authorities that he converted to Catholicism on his deathbed in 1685. Numismatically some of the most significant events in Scottish coinage occurred during the tenure of this reign. For the first time significant numbers of milled coins were issued, beginning in 1663 with the minting of the bodle or Scottish twopence coin. These first examples were undated, however subsequent issues were dated from 1677-1679 with a design change. Silver coinage was initiated beginning in 1664, the values ranging from the quarter merk / sixteenth of a dollar on up to the four merk or one dollar coin. One of the striking curiosities from this era was the use of three denominations on all silver coins. For example the quarter merk or sixteenth dollar coin was tariffed at three shillings sixpence Scottish. Even though the dollar denomination was used in describing these coins, it appears to have not been a contemporaneously used description. The silver coinage of this reign represents one of the most significant issues of larger denomination coins since the reign of James VI. In many ways they served to replace much of the earlier and well worn examples which continued to circulate long after issue because of the Civil War. Whilst at the time it was by comparison to earlier times quite common to encounter the new milled coins, for later collectors they would prove to be rather elusive, due in no small part to the recall after the Union of 1707 in which most coins were exchanged for the new coin of the realm. The recall collected significant numbers of known coins, which were subsequently melted into the English style coins with the E Mintmark from 1707-1709. Fortunately this reign authourised large numbers of copper coinage, the undated bodles of 1663 followed up by the issues of bodles and bawbees from 1677 - 1679 created a circulating medium for smaller denomination coins, which because of the Crowns later lack of desire to supplement small change requirements throughout Britain after 1707 resulted in their circulating quite late into the 18th century. Whilst the small change situation in the late 17th century was desperate, later would be proven by example to be even more dire. Perhaps because of this coin shortage, it was determined in 1682 that far more copper coins were minted than had been authorised in various Acts, resulting in an investigation and closure of the mint whence it had been determined that certain mint officials including Mintmaster John Falconer had engaged in fraudulent activities in the minting of these coins. This coin is a bawbee or sixpence minted in 1679, obviously one of the coins which saw a long term of service beyond normal, because of the accute coin shortage in Scotland during the early 18th century. Some of the copper for this issue was imported from Swedish mines. Because this coin managed to circulate long after the Union of 1707 as a halfpenny, it became common vernacular to refer to halfpennies as bawbees, a practice which continued on up to the demise of the halfpenny in 1971. Denominations used during this reign: Silver This particular piece is a 4 Merk, or for some reason when it was issued in 1681, this coin was referred to as a Dollar, even though that latter was never used in common vernacular. This coin is from the second coinage and is S-5618, or SC24M-075 in Coincraft. This particular piece is quite rare in nicer grades. The value of this coin was raised to 56/- from the old 4 Merk standard of 53/4 by proclamation in 1681. 4 Merks - Dollar - 53 Shillings 4 Pence - Coined from 1664-1675, Dollar from 1676-16822 Merks - 1/2 Dollar - 26 Shillings 8 Pence - Coined from 1664-1675, Half Dollar from 1675-1681 The merk as pictured above was the most common silver Scottish coin from the reign of Charles II that circulated in Scotland. It was the equivalent of 13/4 or Thirteen Shillings, Four Pence and was the last vestige of the Merk reckoning used in Scotland for hundreds of years. Curiously the term "Quarter Dollar" was not used contemporaneously, but only as a reference much later on, so in effect it is not really accurate in describing these coins. This coin is S-5620 in Seaby and SC-21M-135 in Coincraft. 1 Merk - 1/4 Dollar - 13 Shillings 4 Pence - Coined from 1664-1675, Quarter Dollar from 1675-16821/2 Merk - 1/8 Dollar - 6 Shillings 8 Pence - Coined from 1664-1673, Eighth Dollar from 1676-16821/16 Dollar - 3 Shillings 4 Pence - Sixteenth Dollar from 1677-1681 Copper Bawbee or 6 pence dated 1677 Bawbee or 6 pence dated 1678 Bawbee or 6 pence dated 1679. These Bawbee coins are very typically found in miserable condition like the above three coins, unfortunately there was never a pressing need to provide small subsidiary coinage after the Union of 1707, and these coins served long hard lives deep into the 18th century circulating as halfpennies until approximately the 1760's or 1770's when halfpennies minted in London began to takeover in circulation. A result of their long circulation is that until the 1971 conversion to decimal coinage, Scots referred to halfpennies as Bawbees. 6 Pence - Bawbee - Coined from 1677-1679, these coins are the most commonly encountered from this reign, though usually well worn.2 Pence - Bodle - Coined in 1663 with CR monogram2 Pence - Bodle - Coined in 1677-1679 with crown over crossed sword and sceptre, second most commonly encountered coin.

King William and Queen Mary were a particularly odd pairing of a royal couple. William was from Orange in the Netherlands while Mary was the daughter of King James II of Scotland and Ireland. Neither were particularly attracted to one another, and this union was purely political in nature. Small denomination coinage in Britain was overlooked by the crown in all of the constituent parts of the kingdom. While England had it's issues with small coinage, Scotland was even worse. Bodles(2 pence) and bawbees(6 pence) were the smallest denomination coinage issued in the kingdom of Scotland. This bawbee in common with the circulation pattern of the time circulated deep into the 18th century even though larger Scottish coinage in silver and gold was recalled and melted in favour of United Kingdom sterling beginning in 1707. The bawbee circulated as a halfpenny while the bodle circulated as a farthing, even though it was actually 1/3 of a halfpenny.

@John Conduitt From what I understand another part of the impetus to minting tin coins was to create demand for tin to help out an already almost unprofitable mining operation in Cornwall. Tin mining had been going on for several centuries but the nature of the element limited its' overall usage. BTW your example is awesome, these are incredibly difficult to find without advanced "tin pest" or corrosion. Even English bronze farthings and halfpennies from this era are rather scarce, when you do find them they are also usually miserable as they were used for a very long time into the 1770s or so. Small coinage was a chronic problem in Britain until ca. 1840 when supply finally caught up with demand and steam powered machinery took over making coinage production much quicker.

Inasmuch as Great Britain was chronically short of silver during that time - consider Sweden. Sweden had mineral wealth, lots of timber etc - but the only metal they had was copper. So they ended up having to mint plate money, the 1/2 daler and daler coinage mainly for the domestic market and the larger 2 and 4 daler for the export market where when demand for copper was high - was traded overseas for silver when possible. In addition during that tumultuous time Sweden controlled a good part of both sides of the Baltic, Finland and even Holstein in N. Germany and was in a long drawn out with Tsar Petr I(1682-1725) of Russia. A 1 daler plate money issued during the reign of Charles XII in 1716. While these were being struck, the lasting expenses of the long Northern War(1700-1721) with Russia were depleting funds so beginning in 1716 thru 1718 token coinage for dalers were issued that were about 2.5 centimetres in diameter.

I had an item posted in Aberdeen on 12 December that is get this, still in the Aberdeen mail centre as of 31 December. In contrast I had a parcel come in from Noonans via Fedex and that was actually quick and no delays. Royal Fail was on strike when I was in Belfast, they've had rolling strikes ever since. The nurses at the NHS are on strike. There was an intermittent rail strike especially in Scotland.

Got a Fedex package from Noonans this month that required customs paperwork, signatures, address verification etc. It was the value of the parcel that ticked all the boxes and then on top of it I had issues with my credit union not allowing foreign currency transactions over a limit which I had to jump through a hoop to get approved.

The Anglo-Saxon era of British history is so enigmatic, I only own a couple of Northumbrian pieces myself but would like to get into the earlier silver issues with the fantastic birds etc on them. Very nice write up and great coinage.

It is not often that you can have a 750+ year old coin that was minted in a structure that still stands, but this coin was minted in Waterford, Ireland during the reign of Edward I 1272-1307 in what is known as Reginalds Tower: The tower was believed to have been constructed from approximately 1253-1280.

I am pretty confident it is warmer in Miletos than it is here in NE USA.

In Russia the lines blur between "official" and individuals. If you read Ukr media like I do there are many stories of looting, shops, homes, vehicles etc all tolerated by the "officials" of occupying power. What is to stop them when they are attempting to steal a whole country?

Вывезен контрабандой из сами знаете откуда в былые времена. Smuggled out of you know where back in the days old.

Є можливість зібрати старовинні монети з території сучасної України - це дрібна монета з міста Тирас - Білгород-Дністровський

This is well known ruble of year 1924 with "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" or Proletarians of all lands Unite! more commonly translated to English as Workers of the world, Unite!

My type set of small denomination Russian coins, sorry the gold is not presently imaged. I literally have dozens of the Yekaterina etc pyataks, coins as early as the wire money but haven't imaged them. With the poltina and the ruble, I enjoy the old Slavonic Cyrillic lettering on them.

Of course I saw those, you have very good tastes in medals - BTW my Noonans bids were on other treasures thus.

It is believed by many researchers that approximately 50 million pennies were minted by Scottish mints during the reign of Alexander III(1249-1286), his coinage was far more prolific than any other reigns because of the growth of trade with Europe. While it is likely there are Scottish minted coins in the above hoard, English pennies would have come north with the occupying forces from the armies of Edward I(1272-1307) and Edward II(1307-1327) and would have been preferred by the English and their Scottish subordinates. As mentioned previously, Scots coins in general from this reign are common - but some mints are incredibly rare - pennies with 28 points in the stars on the reverse are from a very small mintage from a small locale that has never been identified . This penny has 22 points and is conjectured to have been minted in St. Andrews. This is an Edward I penny minted in Canterbury, from the first coinage that closely resembled Henry III's coinage. This coin was part of the Colchester Hoard of 1969.

I use twitter only for Ukraine related stuff and I signed up for it when I still lived there. We also have telegram but unfortunately it compromised by the horde from the east lately. At least until couple of weeks ago twitter was not owned by hostile foreign agents - space karen. But naming a communication platform after extinct animal?

My wife actually bought this whence we were in Dublin last month: I think she got this at the National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology - the museum was absolutely fantastic and worth the visit.

This hemi-litron was issued during the reign of Agathokles from ca. 317-289 BC and portrays an image of Artemis or Diana, the Goddess of War -notice her quiver of arrows behind her neck. The legend Soteira translates as "saviour" The winged thunderbolt on the reverse with the monarchs' Agathokles name and title is a famous design.

Gallia Belgica Potin ca. 1st century, with a druid figure on front and wolf killing bear on reverse.

There is a reason I pay for subscription to PBS - no commercial broken excellent programmes. I watched the Last Days of Pompeii last week and it was fantastic.

We used to use a lot of these, then they were worth about $24 USA but since the war it is worth about $3 or so. Now the National Bank is demonetising all of these older notes printed before 2016 - maybe because the horde from the east has stolen many of them. The portrait is of Lesya Ukrainka Kovach 1871-1913, Ukrainian poet and writer in Ukrainian language whose works were banned in the Russian Empire.