FitzNigel

I’m currently visiting family on cape Code and felt it up here (very mild this far away of course…)

Love the direction with the Nordic coins Nap! Those are hard to find!

Looking good John! Love the Woden type

1 hour ago, Hrefn said:

I spent a while trying to make sense of the inscription, and now I see it is retrograde +DOVVICVS IMP with the final two letters legate.   They left off the LU- or HLU- in HLUDOVVICVS IMP.    So this is indeed an immobilization of a Louis the Pious denier.   The other amazing thing is it is only about 1/3 the mass of a standard Louis the Pious denier.  

Yep - I did a post on it back on CoinTalk before the migration here. It’s a neat coin, but I need to get an example of the original 

Love the Louis!

I do need to get some Carolingian coins - closest I have is a Norman imitation:

Early Medieval - Carolingian Normandy; Anonymous (Viking/Rollo-William Longsword), 10th c. (920s); AR Denier, 16mm x 0.57 grams; Obv.: Counterclockwise legend +DOVVICVSIMP around small cross; Rev.: Clockwise legend XRISTIANA REL around temple; Ref.: Moesgaard, ‘A Survey of Coin Production and Currency in Normandy,’ 109-111; Note: Imitation of a Louis the Pious denier

3 hours ago, seth77 said:

The Serbian coin seems to be of the 1389 type for Stefan Lazar Hrebljanovic of Moravian Serbia, but I can only make sense of the +CONTE... on obverse and n0VO mOnT... on reverse, marking the mint of Novo Brdo. I wasn't able to find the fleur-de-lys  privy mark on reverse but I am not an expert on Serbian coinage. For a similar spec see here, but as far as I can tell with differing legends after the CONTE and after n0VO mOnT.

Thanks Seth - I’ll be able to identify it when I find the time (that’s really my only obstacle at the moment…)

I listen to Gone Medieval by history hit, and it is quite good.  Probably the best, and most academic podcast (in a genuinely intellectual way) is Byzantium & Friends - I highly recommend it!

Hello Coin friends - boy have I been a non-entity around here.  At the beginning of the year, my wife got a job in another city, and so I spent many months scrambling to find a new job so I could join her, and that left me with little time for coining.  The move kept me busy, and then my new job has turned out to be more stressful and more time consuming than my last one, leaving even less time for coining.  Combine this with the migration to this new forum, and I just haven’t had time to keep up.  I have purchased some coins, but my ‘top ten’ also represent the entirety of my acquisitions this year, and all of them purchased before June.  I hope to be able to get back into the hobby next year, but I am once again on the hamster wheel of looking for a new job to escape my current situation.  Oh well, it is what it is!  But with those caveats, you’ll see I haven’t had an opportunity to take good photos of my coins, nor even do proper attributions for them, but I wanted to post SOMETHING.  Okay, Fitz’s Top Ten:

10. Mysterious Roman

We all know about these coins from shady eBay dealers.  However, this one is special because it was a gift to me by one of my students who graduated this year.  This student loves Roman History, and really enjoyed the coin research project I had my students do when we did our unit on Rome.  I’m not sure I will ever figure out what this coin is, but it doesn’t matter - it was a wonderful gift.

9. Philip III Macedonian shield

I grabbed this in one of JA’s private auctions - probably because it was cheap and I just liked the look of it.  Did he migrate over and is he still doing those sales?  I always enjoyed them…

8. Slavonia coin lot

This is representative of one of a number of coins from Medieval Slavonia I acquired in a lot.  I think I got around ten, and nearly all were different (the purchase was in January and at this point I honestly do not remember).  I just like these coins as we can identify quite a bit about them, and they are generally inexpensive.

7. Decimal proof British coins

One thing I did do quite a bit of before the move was changing my US, UK, and World coin collections to new and better binders.  As I was working on this I got the itch to fill in some of the holes in my UK decimal collection.  I happened to find a dealer who had a bunch of proof sets for cheap, so I nabbed these.  I still need to crack them open…

6. Richard I denier from Aquitaine

I have darn near every other coin of Richard’s (except Issodun which is impossible, or Cyprus which is just expensive), but for some reason never had a denier from Aquitaine.  This popped up at a reasonable price early in the year so I snagged it.

5. Bohemian Ladislaus I

I began the year planning on focusing on more of my Bohemian collection, and began with purchasing this coin and the next one.  The artistry of these reminds me of the same style as the marginalia one finds in manuscripts.

4. Bohemian Ladislaus II - Wenceslaus bust forward

This Bohemian coin in particular I liked because of the bust of Saint Wenceslaus.

3. Caracalla with Plautilla

Really the only reason I got this coin is because of its similarity to my number 1 coin this year.  I have a sub-collection of large bronze provincials of Caracalla, and this certainly fits that criteria.

2. Serbian coin

I found this at a coin show and just fell in love with the imagery.  I don’t have any other coins from Serbia, and the price was right.

1. Caracalla Damnatio Memoriae

This was the big purchase earlier this year.  To fit in my ‘big provincial bronzes of Caracalla’ collection, I knew I would one day need to get the Damnatio Memoriae of his brother Geta that was issued from Stratonicaea.  This came up for auction earlier in the year, and while I paid quite a bit for it, I still think I got a good deal.  Interestingly, just after my move the auction house contacted me saying that a certain museum in Europe was interested in acquiring this coin.  I never got back to them as I have just been too busy.  I feel a little bad about that, as I would have been willing to loan it, but it will not be for sale for some time.  Although it feels nice knowing that one of your coins is worthy of being in a museum! (And that they wanted it, as opposed to most coins which we know are just left to sit around and gather dust…)

Merry Christmas all!  I hope 2023 brings you many great acquisitions!  Hopefully I will get the opportunity to be a bit more active around here too.

-Fitz

I don’t know about “ultra high grade,” but here is my example:

Crusader - Antioch; Tancred, Regent, r. 1101-1103, 1104-1112; AE Follis, 20.3 mm x 3.3 grams; Obv.: Bust of Tancred facing, wearing turban, holding sword; Rev.: Cross pommetée, fleuronnée at base; IC XC NI KA in quarters; Ref.: Malloy Antioch 4a, De Wit 4079; (Metcalf, Crusades 63-70); Overstruck on a First type follis of Tancred, Malloy Antioch 3a

I like the clear facial expression and hair on yours.  Well done!

@JeandAcre and @Ancient Aussie - you two are a bad influence.  Today’s purchase:

37 minutes ago, Kali said:

^That would be funnier if it was U.S. Coins or any of the Quarter programs currently going on.

Yea, I thought the same thing as soon as I made it…

I’m a bit late to this thread, but here is my cat, Izzy, adjusting to life in her new home:

and here is a medieval kitty:

Norman Italy - Sicily; William II, r. 1166-1189; Messina Mint, Second Copper Large Follaro, 25.28 mm x 11.2 grams; Obv.: Lion Head; Rev.: Palm tree with dates; Ref.: NCKS 372, MEC 14.425

I agree that we need to see that top ten @Severus Alexander!

but another thought occurred to me.  One of the great joys of CT was the annual top ten lists.  Here on NumisForums, where would we post these?  With so many different forums for different areas of ancient and medieval coins, would our top 10s just go in the ‘general’ forum?  Or dare I suggest we ask for a dedicated annual top 10 forum?  (Or would this just furcate the forum too much?)

My first medieval coin was a Richard I from Poitou:

French Feudal - Poitou; Richard I, r. 1168-1185; AR Denier, 17mm x 1 grams; Obv.: +RICARDUS REX, cross patée, annulet in third quarter; Rev.: PIC / TAVIE / NSIS, written in three parallel lines; Ref.: AGC 343A (1/a), Duplessy 926, Roberts 3887, SCBC 8008, De Wit 394; Note: My First Medieval Coin

I later got an English issue:

England; Richard I, r. 1189-1199 A.D.; London Mint, AR Class 4a Short Cross Penny, 20.06mm x 1.8 grams; Obv.: [hEN]RICVS R[EX].  Bust facing seven pearled crown with sceptre; Rev.: +[RIC]ARD . ON . LVN.  Short cross voided with quatrefoil in each angle; Ref.: North 968/1, SCBC 1347, CC99 R11D-010, De Witt 3193

and recently one from Aquitaine.  Unfortunatly I don’t have a photo of the Aquitaine denier. Although I do have a photo of a Richard Obol from Aquitaine:

French Feudal - Aquitaine; Richard I, r. 1168-1185; Bordeaux Mint, BL Obole, 14.20 mm x 0.40 grams; Obv.: + / RICA / RDVS / ω, in four lines; Rev.: +AQVITANIE, cross pattée; Ref.: AGC 6 (1/a), Duplessy 1034, SCBC 8005, De Wit 400

Now I just need to get one from Cyprus and one from Issoudun…

Glad someone got this going - I’m still too busy with life changes.  But here is my most recent purchase from the coin show yesterday - it is from Serbia, but I need to do a little more research for the particulars (don’t tell me!  The research is half the fun):

2 hours ago, Steve said:

Fantastic medieval coins, coin-gang ... there are some real winners in this thread

Ummm, speaking of total winners, this sweet Knight-coin kicks fricken ass!!

 

LORRAINE, Theobald II, Duke of Lorraine

Double denier (¼ Big Spadin, s.d. Nancy)

AR Gros

1303-1312 A.D.

Diameter: 16 mm

Weight: 0.87 grams

Obverse: + T - DV-X. LOTOR – EGIE. The Duke of Lorraine (in armour), riding caped steed to the right, carrying spear in right hand and shield in left  

Reverse: MONETA D - E NANCEI. Downward sword, cutting the legend at the top and bottom, between two Avalerions/Alerions

Reference: S.16 (3/16) Bd.1456 (6 f.) FlonII, n° 1-3, p. 391

Other: Nice monetary type … irregular flan

Ex-stevex6

 

 

🙃

Such a cool coin (I miss it)

is this the infamous Stevex6?  If so, glad to have you back friend!

Well, @ValiantKnightgave the Japanese example I was going to offer!  When I was in Iceland last summer, the museum in Reykjavik had 3rd and 4th century coins which were found there (likely brought over during the settlement period in the 9th century…)

I am all I’m favor of this.  I think the crossover with Koinon can also easily be avoided, as members who want to publish in the print journal should simply submit their work there first.  I did that for Koinon I, and after it was out for over a year I then posted my work on CT (with some updates and editions).

Is my understanding correct that the ‘NumisThoughts’ forum would be curated by the board, containing locked threads, but discussion would be encouraged on the original thread (via a link)?  Or did I get that wrong?

I’m also glad to see the encouragement of moving past CT threads over to here.  I had a nice system where I linked my collection threads to my profile, but I would rather all that stuff be in one place rather than spread throughout the internet…

It is all good @Alegandron - I seem to recall from CT that I arrive in NC soon after you left, so we just missed one another!

I have a couple thoughts here - and this is pure speculation.

1, I think we can blame the Greeks.  They made round coins after the Lydians, and then those spread with the conquest of Alexander.  @Alegandron’s examples above are mostly Indian, but the Indian coins mostly become round in shape after more extensive contact with the Greeks (although not all - there are those square Bactrian coins still).

Aside from India and the Lydians/Greeks, the only other people who independently invent coins are the Chinese (to my knowledge - please correct me if I’m wrong).  The Chinese had a wide assortment of shapes for coins as well, but the victor of the Warring states period, and thus the founder of the first Chinese empire used round coins.  This then might be pure coincidence.  But I half wonder if maybe it was also some type of anti counterfeiting measure.  Is round a harder shape to produce?  Square would be easy to cut from a sheet of metal, amd the earliest coins were really just lumps of metal.  But I don’t know.

I like @CPK’s theory too.  We have that one Greek text that speaks of them carrying obols in the mouth - imagine doing that with the dolphin coins!

It’s this weekend.  Anyone going to be there?  I’ll only be able to make it Sunday…

my connection to Norwich is purely from the year abroad I spent there.  No genealogical connection.  Despite the newer facade, the castle museum is excellent (although note it has been some 15 years since I have been there). I recall the roof tour being well worth the extra cost because you go excellent view of the city.  The damage done from WWII was really noticeable from up there.

I’ve never properly photographed my “condor” tokens, so forgive the phone photos:

I did a year’s study abroad in Norwich as an undergrad, so when I found the token with Norwich castle, I had to grab it.  I have since started gathering other tokens from Norwich as well (including one of Coleman’s before they became famed for just mustard…. But that’s not architectural so I’ll leave it).

I spent much more time living in Durham, but as far as I can tell, there aren’t any tokens from there (or at least not any good ones…)