UkrainiiVityaz

Canada was just a young 100 years old when this coin commemorated the confederation.

Scotland - Queen Mary(1542-1567) Billon Penny (1547)

Pennies in 90 percent bronze and 10 percent silver were the first of very few coins struck in Scotland bearing a portrait of Mary, this as an infant. This particular coin is from the first coinage with the portrait of Mary with an arched crown, a particularly rare coin, struck in small quantities, and one of the few with Mary crowned on a coin. The legend on the front of the coin is + MARIA D G R SCOTORVM whilst the reverse is OPIDVM EDNBVR.

Provenance:
Ex David McDonald Collection (Dix Noonan Webb 63, 7 October 2004), lot 710

William Crapp of Bridgewater Sussex issued this farthing in 1670.  The crown did a crappy job of supplying low value coins, so it was up to individuals like Mr. Crapp to emit these tokens.

A municipal farthing from Burford Oxford, struck in a brass composition in 1669.

On 6/26/2022 at 10:12 AM, Paddy54 said:

That is a real 1966 US quarter,looks like die deteration and struck though grease.and correct struck at Philadelphia Pa. Mintage 821,101,000 its also a doubled die DDO 002 as the spread on IGWT as well die markers  the primary is a Dot on the L in Liberty at the foot of the L. Some spread can be seen also.

http://varietyvista.com/09b WQ Vol 2/DDO Detail Pages/1966PDDO002.htm

The coin that was used for the die is real, but this is not even cupro-nickel but some softer "white metal" - unfortunately I don't own a metals tester to determine the exact elements.  

And still on the subject of unofficially issued quarters, here is one with slightly more provenance and gold to boot.

On the subject of quarters, well, here is one that is NOT - authentic anyway.  It is a genuine not officially authorized production of some surreptitious mint somewhere probably in the USA.

Wisht someone had let me have the wheel of Parmigiano.  Sometime I may feel up to sharing a family history tale of a wheel of cheese and the inspiration to make money.

25 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

I believe it was because Richard and John wanted to carry forward the aura of their father, Henry II. It was normal for the Angevins in France to 'immobilise' their coinage if you were from a successful dynasty.

A Richard III groat is something else altogether.

Well, whence your planted in a car park you knoweth thou hath fallen thus from grace.

United Kingdom Victoria One Penny 1854

I love large bronze coins with mellow toning with hints of the original mint bloom peeking through on the devices of the coin.

Scotland Charles II Merk 1680

A Merk in Scots vernacular is a coin worth 13/6 or 13 shillings sixpence and the term originated as mark and was used in the 16th and 17th centuries in Scotland.  After the Act of Union of 1707 it was tariffed as one shilling in the new British pound revaluation.  Most examples were called in from 1707-1709 melted and re-minted as sterling coinage with the "E" mintmark for Edinburgh.  Whilst no coins were minted in Edinburgh after 1709 the mint existed as some overlooked aspect of the Act of Union until it was abolished in 1816.

I think it is curious that if you want a coin with the monarch's regnal name you have to get something from Ireland(John) or France(Richard).  And I have never owned a Richard coin - though I wouldn't mind owning a Richard III groat.

Finland doesn't have even a mountain, only hills.  Norwegians have discussed turning over some territory in the northeast of the country so that their neighbour - Finland - can have a mountain.  Gotta love Scandinavian countries, looking out for each other.

Parmesano Reggiano is the absolute best of cheeses.  It is also quite dear, even that half wheel is worth some bucks.  I remember a few years ago they had an earthquake in the village where they age it in storehouses and it was a huge mess because of all the broken wheels.  My favourite way of using it is as shaved on soups, baked breads etc.  

I have some gold in dust that I panned in a freezing cold river on the west coast of the USA many years ago.  To get gold from the source you have to work and suffer - which is why it is expensive.

Hungary King Vladislaus II(1490-1516) AR Denar dated 1508

My earliest Christian Era dated coin, this AR denar was minted in 1508 with the mintmark KH for Kremnitz.

Scotland James V(1513~1542) AR Groat

Groat or 1/6 or 18d, there are four varieties, the first with a double arched crown on the monarch, the second with a single arched crown, the third with and open mantle and a trefoil of pellets, and a fourth variety with a pointed nose. These pieces are nice attractive coins, and are very collectible.
This particular groat is the third variety, S-5378 and bears an attractive renaissance era portrait of the monarch.

James V would have the distinction of being the first of three Scottish monarchs in succession who would inherit the throne during the time they were still infants. His father, James IV was killed at the Battle of Flodden, after coming to the aid of the Scottish allies, the French, who were at war with the English. The earliest part of his reign was a regency under his mother, Margaret Tudor, but as she was the sister of Henry VIII of England, she not popular. James attained majority at the age of 16, and soon entered into a five year peace treaty with Henry VIII.

James V married Madeleine, the daughter of the King of France in 1537, but she died seven months after coming to Scotland. Thereafter he married Mary of Guise in June of 1538, they had two sons who died in infancy in 1541, and whose deaths were followed by their Grandmother, Margaret Tudor. With her death, conflict with Henry VIII became inevitable, and the Scots were defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. James V had then entered into a period of depression that would only end with his death at the comparatively young age of 30. He left the throne to Mary, aged only seven days.

Eloye Mestrelle was implicated in a counterfeiting scheme and that coupled with labour issues in the Tower Mint' ie the mint workers were strongly opposed to the milled coinage that saw the whole milled coinage programme stopped until the 1660s whence after the restoration of Charles II to the throne it was determined that coinage would be significantly less likely to be counterfeited with machine struck coinage.

Hammered coinage would continue to circulate, oft at a discount for wear, until the great recoinage in 1696 in which branch mints were set up throughout England.  I bought a heavily worn 1696 halfcrown that was struck in Exeter from a dealer in Indianapolis out of a junk silver box for $8 back in 2019:

Beaten to all hell, but one of my cooler junk silver box finds.

Scotland Queen Mary ~ Ryal or 30/- or 360d 1565-1567, with tortoise climbing palm tree(the arms of Lord Darnley).

Here is an example of a coin with Mary's personal history being played out on the coinage, the inclusion of Lord Henry Darnley's name on the coin as her consort. In an age when it was viewed that a woman could not reign without a man, and a notably passionate woman, she would fall prey to suitors such as Lord Darnley, and later James Bothwell. This would play out tragically in 1567 with the murder of Lord Darnley, her being suspected of having some complicity, and then her unseemly hastened marriage to James Bothwell.

This particular coin was later referred to as a Crookestone Dollar allegedly referring to a Yew Tree in Crookestone Park where it was believed that Lord Darnley courted Queen Mary. But in fact, the tortoise climbing the palm tree is his arms, and doesn't refer to the park.

England - Milled Sixpence London Mint 1562

I purchased this example from Pegasi Numismatics in the early 1990s and only owned it for about 4 years.  I thence gave it to my then fiancé  to have in the tradition of giving a tanner to your intended.  She has owned it since then.  There are several superstitions about tanners, particularly if the intended refuses they bend the coin and cast it off - you can find examples so damaged.  

I might have some early French jetons struck on screw presses but cannot think of what or where they are at the moment.

I've heard that Nicole Kidman collects biblical era coinage.

Henry III (1216-1272) penny minted at Canterbury S-1372vf a longcross coin minted late in the reign of Henry III.

Edward I (1272-1307) first coinage penny again minted at Canterbury very early in the reign of Edward I.  Both of these pieces were part of the Colchester hoard of 1969 - a hoard of over 14k pennies consisting of mostly voided longcross coinage but also had some very rare and early coins.  The coins were surmised to have been buried by a Jewish merchant when Edward I announced a pogrom against Jewish residents in England.

This is exactly why I should have never ventured here - I only own a couple of Anglo Saxons, both from Northumbria - but I wouldn't mind owning more, but then there is Syracuse and Rome and Byzantine.😆