JeandAcre

@Alegandron, the convergence of your latest two is really resonating. In some utterly inarticulate, correspondingly mysterious way, I get a sense that Highland Scots have a more visceral connection to their deep Central Asian roots than most Europeans. ...Maybe because they settled so early, and then just kind of stayed put? A little like how mountain hillbillies held onto speech patterns verging on Elizabethan longer than anyone else did.

...Aaah, I'm finally seeing it, @John Conduitt. That is a quatrefoil; I was merely looking at the spaces between the borders, which are on the worn side of life. But, yes, any example with a central device in the reverse cross is going to be an ecclesiastical issue. Those don't begin until the reign of Edward III. What led me to Edward IV were the first two, barely /ostensibly legible letters of the obverse, which more closely resemble "ED" than any of the available alternatives over the entire interval. And the style of the crown, which looked more 15th than 14th century. Given the heroic level of wear, I arrived at Edward IV by a simple process of elimination.

Hi Amanda, it's looking like another (Cilician) Armenian one, likely Hetoum IV, as @jtlart identified your one with the king sitting down, or maybe later in the 13th century. Anyway, the obverse seems to have a similar motif.

It's an English penny, likeliest to be an Edward IV. Beyond that, my best guess would be first reign, 1461-1470. ...This is the high-water mark of the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic context between rival branches of the Planagenets, whose senior line had ended with Richard II (d. 1399). His predecessor, Henry VI, was restored from late 1470 -early 1471, after which Edward was restored, reigning until 1485. From Spink, Coins of England (50th ed., 2015), the initial mark at the top of obverse (indicating date range) is looking most like like a plain cross, c. 1461-4. But don't take my word for it! ...The example defies easy classification, either from Spink or the earlier but more comprehensive North. The cross in the center of the cross evokes issues by various archbishops during the period, with various distinguishing marks, including ones in the center of the reverse cross. But after checking North, too, this corresponds to none of the listings. Still more mystifying is that both the initial mark (whether or not I'm reading it right), and the central cross, look to be concave rather than in relief, which is effectively universal in any of these issues. Inviting the speculation that in both cases, someone put a countermark on the original example. ...Best you're getting from here. But it does look like Edward IV.

Wow. Predictably enough, your writeup is as erudite as it is enlightening. ...Nope, I knew of exactly nothing west of Massalia.

Best of luck on that one!

Looking at all of this has been a Gas. (Yes, you could access the Stones, if you wanted --from here, it's kind of an involuntary earworm.) Makes me wish I'd ever evolved to using a camera. Sorry this is the best that'll happen from here. ...But @Ancient Coin Hunter and @Phil Anthos talking about the Cascades had to evoke the one and only, unforgettable time my family took the North Cascades Highway, when I was a kid. (Right, I still live vaguely in that part of the world.) The scenery was on a spectrum from the merely surreal to the benignly insane. If you were a kid, and had the option of just sitting there, looking out the window, it was really a non-pharmeceutical high. Here's someone else's pictures, from https://www.thatawaydad.com/north-cascades-national-park-second-day/ Right, the best parts were over a two-lane road, carved out of the side of the mountain, with the kind of drop you can imagine from the first picture. At one point, there was a good-sized gap in the guardrail, as if somebody had gone over the edge. ...My juvenile endorphins were running at full bore; it was just fun.

Many thanks, @Deinomenid! Instantly bookmarked, and I'm about to register!

@seth77, with your own typically judicious caveat, you got as close as I've been able to from checking the listing in Kluge, followed by his other plates for ecclesiastical issues. But eventually, I was inspired to do that much. Merely because, ubiquitously even for German dealers listing on the premium auction platforms, the example you cite doesn't bother with even an approximation of the legends. A salient advantage of Kluge (along with Dannenberg) is that he takes the trouble to do that. ...Sadly, the only Ilisch I have in print is not the one cited; it doesn't even extend as far east as Utrecht and Deventer. Which is too bad, since what showed up in Kluge presented a bit of a conundrum. He doesn't seem to list this issue at all. The nearest resemblances are to one that was minted in Utrecht (386), and another ecclesiastical one from all the way down in Koblenz (356). These have similar motifs, with a common, much more refined portrait style and wildly divergent legends. ...So all I really managed to do was to confirm what you presumably already found out from Dannenberg; neither of them list this. Anyway, it was a good workout; for one, it led to finding the Ilisch I do have, which had been 'hiding' for a while!

Wow, @Didier Attaix, you have clearly made full use of your good fortune! Congratulations on both. Not to mention the brilliant examples. ...I'd be interested in messaging Bron, here, but I can only guess what his name for the forum is. Would you be okay with messaging me regarding that ...and with me linking to this thread in a prospective, eventual message to him? Right, I could always start out by asking him whether, by any chance, he could suggest any current dealers off the top of his head (preferably lower-end). Thanks again for your kind attention to my aspiration.

These are all just mind-blowing. I have nothing from anywhere any earlier than AEthelred II, and this has been an ongoing epiphany. ...But given that level of disinterestedness, I have to wonder if it might be appropriate to expand this thread into other contemporary kingdoms, and maybe Wessex as far as the later 9th or even early 10th conturies --? Bouncing off @Nap's point, going back to his OP, the progression strikes me as pretty seamless, through AElfred and, by what strikes me as an easy extension, beyond. I'd love to see anyone's examples of Wessex, at least as late as AEthelstan.

With thanks to @expat (going back to April 14), I'm needing some more Commodores. ...The coin. Richard II (1377-1399). Penny, York mint, local dies (and a 'typo' on the obverse). Obv. +RICARDVS: REX: ANGILIE. Rev. EBO:RACI CIVITAS. North 1330c; cf. Spink 1692. All my examples of Henry VI were bought too long ago to have pics; this was the closest I could get ...to this imposing pile, Tattershall Castle. Built by Ralph Cromwell (c. 1393 – 4 January 1456; no apparent relation) from the 1430's. (From Wiki Commons:) It's one of the earliest English 'castles' to be built entirely of brick. Despite the imposing exterior, it's better described as a fortified manor house than a castle or even a 'tower house' (a transitional development, evoking earlier keeps, dating mainly to the 14th and 15th centuries). Note the three ground-floor entrances. It's even been described as "anticipating the development of the courtly 'prodigy' houses of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods." (https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English sites/1855.html) ...My favorite version of this is the one from their live double-LP, 1977. But that runs over nine minutes; I wasn't ready to inflict that on people.

No one ever needed to doubt his profiiciency as a drummer. My last, and most favorite album is Seconds Out; right, immediately following Hackett's departure. As a live album, given that Collins was doing all the lead vocals, their mainstay for touring was Chester Thompson. With a background including Frank Zappa and Weather Report (both of whom did their own versions of fusion), he was on the level they needed to sit in for Collins. On one track, he was replaced by Bill Bruford. Right, the first drummer for Yes, who proceeded to get into fusion-leaning stuff on his solo albums.

@Bonshaw, I'm sure plenty of us speak 'real life' fluently! (Even yours truly, even if my posting sometimes verges on OCD.)

As usual, a better tie-in than I usually manage, @Phil Anthos. And never having heard of the band, I have to wish Phil Collins had pursued this collaboration further. From here, fittingly enough, it also evokes Holst.

Congratulations, @Didier Attaix! I have to guess that the main criterion in authenticating this stuff is likely style (apart from more random details like authentication by the British Museum). You've got the eye for this stuff that I don't! ...Someday, I'd really like to find a scarab, ideally New Kingdom or Third Intermediate period. But I'm still frankly terrified of ebay, and have never settled on one elsewhere. This has to be the one area in which my engagement with the context is in the most flagrant contrast to my vacuuous ignorance of the objects themselves.

@Ursus, with that range of variation, you are well within your rights to get a second example! There are French feudal issues that I was collecting variants of from the onset. Didn't give it a second thought. @ChrisB, Congratulations on a Stunning Fatimid dinar! The nearest to one I have is an 11th-c. CE tari of a very nominally Fatimid, de facto autonomous emir of Sicily. But that one doesn't even have the traditional Fatimid motifs. For that, the nearest is another one, a late Lombard imitation from southern Italy. But bouncing off of those, along with contemporary Normans, I've always wanted a real Fatimid example to round things out --yes, even from much further afield. ...That's really a brilliant example. The legends are pristine --this is when I wish I could read Arabic.

Many thanks, @John Conduitt, for translating the crux of this for the benefit of the scientifically illiterate. And thanks to @Grimulfr for the Fantastic link!!! Summarily bookmarked --this is going to be fun!

@voulgaroktonou, this example of 2)this issue gets an instant Michelin three stars. ...Wow. It really lands on you that even the coins were truly aniconic. I really like the sprinkling of Roman letters. Granted, the examples I'm more familiar with are as late as the folles of Leo the Wise. (Sorry, no pics of mine, but, thank you, other people on this thread have posted more than one.)

Sorry if this is TMI. But when did that ever stop me? Eventually, Smoking was one thing I knew I could quit, so I did. It's been a long minute. Knock on wood --and find soome real wood. ...Speaking of famous people and the herb, there was this one guy I ran into exactly once, at the downtown public transit hub, back to the '80's (when we were both smoking). He Insisted that he'd been a member of the Oakland chapter of the Panthers, and that Huey Newton smoked a pound a day. Etched in memory: "A Pound! Of Reefer! A Day!" Granted, I'll never know how much of that he was making up. But aside from the entertainment value, it was plausible enough on its face.

...Iwound up needing some more John Lee Hooker. A friend in my home town loaned me his copy of the LP (c. 1969), during his phase of recording with troops of hippies, as a kind of informal graduate seminar on how to play the blues. Eventually, I had to graduate to CD. The rest of them acquit themselves remarkably well, but you'll never have trouble telling when it's Hooker on guitar. ...I love this reading for the comments he makes at the very end of the track. First, my latest wire denga, this time from the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, 1613-1645. I've gotten all of mine from the same, exceptionally reliable source who lists US ebay. I have to love how each of them have the emblemmatic flan for the series. Never mind the St. George and the Dragon motif, and the surprisingly well struck legend. Incomprehensible, but duly appreciated. With this from his reference. And, right, for no apparent reason, the John Lee Hooker.

The judiciousness with which you've pursued this so far is admirable, even (if not especially) for a second collection. And I have to like it that your remaining Missing Persons are only Julius Caesar and two others who are arguably no less unsavory than they are scarce. I'm rooting for you landing a solid denarius of JC, whatever type you like best. Sure, it could be a project....

A-Mazing. I have to love how the obverse has the iconically Flavian retrograde legend. That's just icing on an incredible, three-tiered wedding cake. ...The portrait is all you could want for a late issue.

...And it needs saying, I got most if not all of these from Annes Kabel (thanks for the like, Annes!): Who lists here, on US ebay (with shipping that's more reliable than some US dealers): https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=266775019437&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l170197&_ssn=lubicher

A-Mazing. Harthacnut 1)imitating Hiberno-Norse pennies in 2)Denmark (right, vs. England) just blows my mind. And you've got what, to my mind, is the absolute ideal for peck marks; noticeable (for what I always lke to call the added dimension of social history --Yeah, these are Vikings here!) but optimally unintrusive. All around, it's Just Absolutely Brilliant. ...For dramatic contrast, I was very (...very) happy to fall into even this example of a Hiberno-Norse original of Dublin. --Yes, replete with the (otherwise restrained) double-striking, which puts an extra eye on his forehead. All I have for this is Spink, Scotland, Ireland and the Isles [etc.] (2015; #6103), which doesn't include the classes. But it's the first issue in Sihtric's name, after an initial two with variously blundered renderings of AEthelred.