Medieval Monday

[VD76]

12:01 am . It's officially Monday here in Kentucky 🙂

Welcome to Medieval Monday . Cilician Armenia. Baronial. Levon II. 1187-1198. Æ Pogh

3.11 g. 

Obverse: Equestrian knight to the left in armor wielding a banner.

"Levon Servant of God"

Reverse: Cross with circles at tips, and arcs in four quadrants.

 "Son of Stefan."

[Curtisimo]

I doubt I’ll be able to contribute much to the thread since my medieval collection pales in comparison to many of the collectors here.

All the same it’s nice to see this thread up and the medieval section of NF doing well. I enjoy reading the medieval threads even if I can’t often participate.

Here is a coin I was only able to ID thanks to the help of some medieval specialist I met on CT that I believe post here now as well.

Medieval England
King John Lackland (AD 1199 – 1216)
AR Short Cross Penny, London mint, struck ca. AD 1207 – 1210
Dia.: 18.5 mm
Wt.: 0.6 g
Obv.: HENRICVS REX; Crowned bust of king holding scepter
Rev.: +ABEL.ON.LVNDE; Short voided cross with quatrefoil in each angle, pellet stops
Class 5c (N. 971; S. 1352) 
ex @RyroCollection

Edited June 13, 2022 by Curtisimo

[Severus Alexander]

Coingrats @VD76 for being the one to inaugurate Medieval Monday!  You didn't let the grass grow did you! 😆

Wow, what a starter coin too!  I'm an ignoramus about Armenian coinage, frankly, but a quick look on acsearch reveals that is a spectacular example.

It's still Sunday for me, but what the hay, I'll post.  I've been having good luck with English coinage lately.  Here are a couple new acquisitions.  First a Henry IV halfpenny.  I didn't really expect to ever get one, but managed to snag a deal on a nice example.  He's a tough king to get.

Next, I've been looking for an early issue of Edward I's important new long cross penny coinage which set a new standard for quality in Europe (broadly construed).  Pretty pleased with this class 1c:

(Hat tip to @TheRed on this.)

Nice half, @Curtisimo!  These often make expensive slots a lot cheaper!  Here's an Edward the Confessor I recently picked up:

(is there a way to reduce the size of an inserted photo?)

Actually, I sort of accidentally <wink wink> ended up with two, of different types, from the same auction.  Should I keep both?

 

[seth77]

 

[John Conduitt]

This is my kind of Monday. Especially as there are few other requests to post Saxon coins and English hammered pennies. I'll pace myself on the basis that Monday comes around quite often...

Archbishop Wigmund Northumbrian Styca, 837-846 (alternatively 848-858)

York. Copper, 1.05g. VIGMVND around central cross. EDELHELM (moneyer Edelhelm) around rosette of pellets (S 870).

[JeandAcre]

Huge thanks for starting this thread, @VD76.  And that pogh is a mind-blower.  @Severus Alexander, that Henry IV made me sit up in my chair.  ...Cool 1c, too.  Has @TheRed joined here?  If so, where Is he?  ...And regarding halves of pricey reigns, I guess great minds think alike.  

This one might be my best denier of the county of Angouleme, eventually acquired by the Lusignan counts of La Marche (right, a cadet of whom established the long-running dynasty in Jerusalem and Cyprus).  Immobilized in the name of Louis IV, a 10th-c. Carolingian.  12th-13thc.

+LODOICUS /+EGOLISSIME.  (Duplessy 947.)

Edited June 13, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Ursus]

Good to see that medieval Monday is back!

I posted this one along with a detailed write-up at CT (here), but the thread was somewhat washed away by the great flood of vitriol. So I am posting it once more here. It is lovely high medieval bracteate from Brandenburg. I especially like how it portrays margrave Otto II in full knightly armor and carrying the symbols of his position in the feudal hierarchy (sword and banner):

Margraviate of Brandenburg, under Otto II “the Generous,” 1184–1205 AD, AR bracteate, Stendal mint (?). Obv: OTO MARI; margrave standing facing, wearing a mail hauberk with coif, greaves, and a conical helmet with nasal bar, holding sword and banner; at feet r., heater shield. Rev: incuse design (bracteate). 24mm, 0.85g. Ref: Bahrfeldt 70; Slg. Bonhoff 802; Berger 1676; Slg. Löbbecke 442; Leschhorn 3508.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Ursus

[John Conduitt]

Do we start a new thread for the next Medieval Monday or use this one?

[VD76]

47 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

Do we start a new thread for the next Medieval Monday or use this one?

We use this one 🙂

 

Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. John of Brienne. 1210-1225. BI Denier. Struck 1219-1221

Facing head with triangular crown, +IOHANNES REX 

 Cross with annulet in second and third quarter

 +DAMIETA 

Metcalf  202, Schlumb. XX, 4, CCS 45.

ex M Jacobowitz Collection, Baldwin's Auction 52, 25 September 2007, part lot 1360 

[JeandAcre]

...Well, from here, the more intuitive thing would be to conform to precedent, and make this a real, running thread.

Here's one I started an OP about, but too many things got in the way.

 

I like how (edit: WOOPS, INCOMING)

On 6/20/2022 at 11:30 AM, VD76 said:

We use this one 🙂

 

Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. John of Brienne. 1210-1225. BI Denier. Struck 1219-1221

Facing head with triangular crown, +IOHANNES REX 

 Cross with annulet in second and third quarter

 +DAMIETA 

Metcalf  202, Schlumb. XX, 4, CCS 45.

ex M Jacobowitz Collection, Baldwin's Auction 52, 25 September 2007, part lot 1360 

@VD76, that is truly an incredible Jean de Brienne.  I only have three examples of the vastly commoner CCS 43, in precipitously (and precipitately) declining condition.  (...And paid too steep a retail for the first and best one.  That's almost SOP with me.)

And Yes, your take on making this a real, ongoing thread like the other one makes all the intuitive sense, from here, in the world.

...I was starting an OP on this, with some tie-ins to other stuff from the Salian period, but too much life happened (no, mostly benign).

 

Anno II, Archbishop of Köln /Cologne 1056-1075.  AR denar.

Obv. Anno facing, with crozier (...and possibly Gospel book, as in anonymous Byzantine folles?); cross in field.

+ANNO A[RCHIEPC.

Rev. The original cathedral at Köln (razed in a fire in the 1240's).  Dome (cf. the German Dom; apparently some lingering Byzantine influence here, too, going back to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen /Aix), spires to either side; gated wall around.  Beneath dome: 'PETR.'

+IMAGO [S COLO]NIE.  (Dannenberg 398.)

Anno played key political roles in Germany and Salian Italy, especially during the minority of Heinrich IV.  --In spite of which, he was eventually canonized, notably for his personal asceticism.  You can Wiki that. 

But I was curious about the reference to St. Peter.  (...For one, my Protestant and correspondingly unofficial patron saint.)  From the 12th century, Köln was best known for its relics of the Magi.  (Cf. an earlier post on the archbishop who brought the relics from Italy, temp. Friedrich Barbarossa.)  Turns out that, according to some conspicuously anachronistic legend, the first bishop of Köln (early 4th c.) was raised from the dead after being touched with St. Peter's pastoral staff. 

...Over the last couple of years, I've had a run of really good luck with Salian-era denars.  One main attraction of some of the episcopal and royal /imprerial ones are the architectural motifs.  I've always related to medieval coins first as miniature historical documents.  But in this context, you can really get a sense of looking at a little manuscript illustration. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternus_of_Cologne

Edited November 5, 2023 by JeandAcre
This one's easy. I forgot to cite Dannenberg.

[John Conduitt]

Nice coins, neither of which I've seen before.

I'm not sure what the geographical limits are to 'medieval', since the term appears to relate only to European history, but I might just about get away with this...

Batu Khan Golden Horde Dirham, 1249-1250

Bulgar (Volga Bulgaria). Silver, 14-15mm, 1.19g. Mengu kha(n)/Möngke’s tamgha/Supreme. Struck at/Möngke’s tamga/Bulgara (Sagdeeva 4). A tamgha is an abstract symbol used by Eurasian nomads to represent a particular family. Batu Khan established the Golden Horde, which eventually reached as far west as Vienna. Möngke Khan was the Great Khan, who (in theory) oversaw all the Mongol khanates.

 

[Ursus]

1 hour ago, JeandAcre said:

The original cathedral at Köln (razed in a fire in the 1240's).  Dome (cf. the German Dom; apparently some lingering Byzantine influence here, too, going back to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen /Aix), spires to either side; gated wall around.  Beneath dome: 'PETR.'

Nice example, @JeandAcre! I want to higlight that the Cologne pennies are among the very few examples of medieval coins showing an actual, architecturally identifiable building and not a generic representation of a church, castle, or comparable structure. I have shown my Cologne coins before on CT but see no reason not to post them once more here. I'm pretty convinced that the three squares on the reverse of my first coin represent not doors but the sarcophagi of the Magi brought to Cologne by Rainald von Dassel:

Archbishopric of Cologne, under Rainald von Dassel, AR obol, ca. 1159–1167. Obv: Bishop facing, holding crosier and book. Rev: church building with three towers (Cologne cathedral) , inside, three sarcophagi (?). 14 mm, 0.53g. Ref: Hävernick 498.

 

Archbishopric of Cologne, under Heinrich I von Molenark, AR pfennig, ca. 1225–1237 Obv: [+ HENRICS A]RCIEPC; bishop facing, wearing mitre, holding crosier and book. Rev: [+SAN]CTA [C]OLO[NIA]; bust of saint holding two cross flags in front of church building. 18 mm, 1.24g. Ref: Hävernick 547.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Ursus

[UkrainiiVityaz]

 

England Henry III(1216-1272) AR penny S~1363iiib, minted in Lincoln by Ion on Lincole - curiously the obverse of the coin stuck to the die and it got a second striking for the reverse - my oldest double struck Lincoln penny!

[JeandAcre]

9 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

Nice coins, neither of which I've seen before.

I'm not sure what the geographical limits are to 'medieval', since the term appears to relate only to European history, but I might just about get away with this...

Batu Khan Golden Horde Dirham, 1249-1250

Bulgar (Volga Bulgaria). Silver, 14-15mm, 1.19g. Mengu kha(n)/Möngke’s tamgha/Supreme. Struck at/Möngke’s tamga/Bulgara (Sagdeeva 4). A tamgha is an abstract symbol used by Eurasian nomads to represent a particular family. Batu Khan established the Golden Horde, which eventually reached as far west as Vienna. Möngke Khan was the Great Khan, who (in theory) oversaw all the Mongol khanates.

 

@John Conduitt, from someone who conspicuously didn't start this thread, here are my two cents, for what they're worth.

(A favorite mixed cliche; cf. 'That's all the fat lady wrote.')

Even in the context of Europe --as any number of people have pointed out, likely including both of us-- the various phases of the millennium or so involved vary widely, depending on where you're looking, in a continent that's relatively small in the first place.  And thanks to dynamics going all the way from the always resonant heritage of the Roman Empire, to the Sasanians and Muslim caliphates, to the Crusades, the political and cultural borders are irreducibly porous, effectively for the entire interval.

Your example is a terrific case in point.  Um, last I checked, Bulgaria was in Europe.  Sorry if that sounded snarky.  But from here, the construct of the Middle Ages works well enough on a vague but useful chronolgical level, to allow a much more relaxed attitude toward the ensuing cultural, political and geographic connotations.

[John Conduitt]

57 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

Even in the context of Europe --as any number of people have pointed out, likely including both of us-- the various phases of the millennium or so involved vary widely, depending on where you're looking, in a continent that's relatively small in the first place.  And thanks to dynamics going all the way from the always resonant heritage of the Roman Empire, to the Sasanians and Muslim caliphates, to the Crusades, the political and cultural borders are irreducibly porous, effectively for the entire interval.

Your example is a terrific case in point.  Um, last I checked, Bulgaria was in Europe.  Sorry if that sounded snarky.  But from here, the construct of the Middle Ages works well enough on a vague but useful chronolgical level, to allow a much more relaxed attitude toward the ensuing cultural, political and geographic connotations.

Yes my coin flirts around the edges of both the continent and the phases of which the Middle Ages was part, since the Mongols didn't follow that history. Volga Bulgaria is actually in Russia now, but is still west of the Ural Mountains (just), which is often considered the boundary of Europe. In any case, I'm sure no-one really minds, even when pushing the definition as late as the Tudors.

Edited June 20, 2022 by John Conduitt

[Steve]

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)

Edited June 20, 2022 by Steve

[JeandAcre]

58 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

Yes my coin flirts around the edges of both the continent and the phases of which the Middle Ages was part, since the Mongols didn't follow that history. Volga Bulgaria is actually in Russia now, but is still west of the Ural Mountains (just), which is often considered the boundary of Europe. In any case, I'm sure no-one really minds, even when pushing the definition as late as the Tudors.

@John Conduitt, I'm not sure what you mean by the Mongols not 'following' medieval history.  It strikes me as a somewhat awkward verb ...unless it implicitly refers to the ensuing, collective construct made of the period by Western historians, over the 17th-21st centuries.

...For instance, as of the 13th c., the Mongols were receiving diplomatic emissaries from Angevin England and Capetian France.  Some of the Mongols were reported to have converted to a Middle Eastern form of Monophysite Christianity (...encountered by crusaders and their descendants in the Levant over the preceding century and a half), and Louis IX, along with the future Edward I, were actively contemplating a potential alliance with them against the Mamluks in Egypt.  My takeaway is that, at the level of geopolitical statecraft, the Mongols were pretty emphatically integral to European interests.  ...Otherwise, what do you do, historically or numismatically, with the entire era of the Crusades?  (Witness the crusader imitations of Ayyubid dirhams, with accurate AH dates.  Or comparable examples from Norman Sicily.)

...Sorry, this is entirely from memory, but it wouldn't be hard to find corroborating references.

Edited June 20, 2022 by JeandAcre
More Stuff to add

[JeandAcre]

2 hours ago, Ursus said:

Nice example, @JeandAcre! I want to higlight that the Cologne pennies are among the very few examples of medieval coins showing an actual, architecturally identifiable building and not a generic representation of a church, castle, or comparable structure. I have shown my Cologne coins before on CT but see no reason not to post them once more here. I'm pretty convinced that the three squares on the reverse of my first coin represent not doors but the sarcophagi of the Magi brought to Cologne by Rainald von Dassel:

Archbishopric of Cologne, under Rainald von Dassel, AR obol, ca. 1159–1167. Obv: Bishop facing, holding crosier and book. Rev: church building with three towers (Cologne cathedral) , inside, three sarcophagi (?). 14 mm, 0.53g. Ref: Hävernick 498.

 

Archbishopric of Cologne, under Heinrich I von Molenark, AR pfennig, ca. 1225–1237 Obv: [+ HENRICS A]RCIEPC; bishop facing, wearing mitre, holding crosier and book. Rev: [+SAN]CTA [C]OLO[NIA]; bust of saint holding two cross flags in front of church building. 18 mm, 1.24g. Ref: Hävernick 547.

@Ursus, your examples are terrific, especially with your reference to the likelihood that your Rainald von Dassel includes a representation of the Magis' sarcophogi.  That is Exceedingly Cool.  I'm also really needing your later pfennig of Heinrich von Molenark.  I've seen listings of issues from the 13th century, with that convergence of the facing portrait and the ongoing architectural motifs.  For the region, this is already kind of late for me, but they're Very cool.

...And it took about half an hour before it landed on me that I'd posted this in ...wait for it... the other  'Medieval Monday.'  The post was recent enough that it threw me for that long.  Anyway, thanks to the wonders of Google Docs, here it is.

 

1. Apologies are due, to whoever has any use for them, for how long it took me to get to this. My now antiquated desktop (first one I ever bought new) had one of its regularly scheduled, sustained electro-neural episodes.
   But just before that started happening, I got this.
   
   
   Rainald von Dassel, Archbishop of Koln 1159-1197. AR obole /obol (half denar).
   I've yet to even look for this in my .pdf of Dannenberg, but my trust in the dealer is otherwise, justly implicit. On the obverse, Yep, you've got Rainald, facing, holding a crozier and a Gospel book.
   Rainald was prominent in the administration of Friederich I Barbarossa, notably as an envoy during Friedrich's diplomatic and military campaigns in the city-states of northern Italy. ...Which, at the time, were an increasingly nominal part of the German empire. From one of his Italian missions, Rainald brought the relics of the Three Magi back to Koln. Scored him some points with Friedrich. Here's a pic of Rainald, from the near-contemporary, correspondingly elaborate gold reliquary in the cathedral at Koln.
   
   
   The obol is a terrific complement to a denar of Friedrich himself, from Aachen.
   
   AR denar of Aachen, issued c. 1171-1190.
   Obv. Friedrich crowned, enthroned, holding sword and orb, star in right field.
   FREDERI [...] IM-P-R (‘FREDERI [CVS] IMP [E] R [ATOR].
   Rev. Stylized skyline of Aachen, with crenellated stone wall and gate in the ‘foreground,’ roofs and spire (/dome) above.
   +ROMA CAPVT MVNDI (‘Rome, Capital of the World’). (The spire may represent the central dome of Charlemagne’s original chapel, emulating the dome of Justinian in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. And, like it, still extant, as part of the much larger cathedral complex in modern Aachen.)
   Bonhoff 1605 (plate coin); Krummbach 27.2, Menadier 27.
   Since Aachen /Aix was Charlemagne's capital, the reverse legend symptomizes not only broader 12th-century perceptions of the Carolingian empire as a legitimate successor to the (western) Roman one, but also, given all that, how keen Friedrich was to appropriate Charlemagne's dynastic legacy.
   By a fun twist of numisatic irony, the motifs of Friedrich's issue of Aachen are imitated by the succeeding bishop of Koln.
   
   CT: L: Philipp von Heinsberg, Archbishop of Koln 1167-1191.
   AR denar of Koln, 4th type, c. 1181-1190 (variant).
   Obv. Philipp facing, enthroned, mitred, holding crozier in right hand, pennon surmounted by a cross in left.
   [From 1 o'clock:] HIT ARC [...] EPISCOP [...] V
   Rev. Stylized skyline of Koln Cathedral, the central tower surmounted by a cross, extending into the legend; Romanesque (or Carolingian?) arcading below.
   +EIA COLONIA PAIC IIAI
   Bonhoff 1582, Havernick 549 (variant). For reverse legend, see
   http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotvi...Lot=1897&Val=8a21ade593f13678a803c97a9a159f84.

Edited June 20, 2022 by JeandAcre

[ewomack]

Wow, it's Monday again...

|

[FitzNigel]

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!

[Steve]

Yup ... hi Fitz-N!!

=> long time, no coinin'

I hope that you're doing well? (I'm livin' large ... medical-schmedical)

[JeandAcre]

@ewomack, the nearest I've gotten with this is that it's a Class 10ab, North p. 31, c. 1301-10.  It's a terrific example, looking as if the anachronistic 'portrait' of Edward was having a good day.

...Nope, 'Class 10ab' still has subclasses; North was that thorough.  In the available light, I'm frankly scared to squint through Stewartby.  The main feature I could see that nails it as a 10ab is the letter form of the obverse 'R.'

...Anyway, your example dates to the middle of Edward's Scottish wars, while he was attempting to do to the Scots what he'd already done to the Welsh, back to his younger days.  This is the period of William Wallace, leading up to the active regnal candidacy of Robert the Bruce.

(...As a lineal descendant (as are, for instance, Colin Powell and Meghan Sussex), I'm no great fan.  But value judgments aside, the attendant history has its own, relentless fascination.  All you really have to do is to recognize that 'colonialism' doesn't have to involve conquest and exploitation across entire oceans, and may be as easy as the same, involving 'foreign' ethnicities, as near as a border or a narrrow sea away, and you're already there.  ...This is an easy expansion of academic historians having characterized the conquest of Ireland, from the 1170's, as the first, Angevin phase of British colonization.  ...I'm starting to depress myself.  Sorry, @ewomack, but even I get it that it's time to shut up, for a minute.)

Edited June 21, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Curtisimo]

Here is a Medieval Crusader coin in honor of Medieval Monday.

Crusader Antioch
Bohemond III (Minority 1149-1163, Majority 1163-1201)
AR Denier, Antioch mint, struck ca. 1163-1188
Wt.: 1.06 g
Dia.: 17 mm
Obv.: +BOAHVHDVS; Helmeted head left marked with cross pattee, coif mail composed of crescents, five pointed star right, crescent left.
Rev.: +ANTIOCNIA; cross pattee, with crescent pointing downward in second angle.
Ref.: Malloy 65/Class A to B cf. Metcalf
Ex AMCC 2, Lot 289 (Nov. 9, 2019)

[Severus Alexander]

A new sceat, Series X "Wodan Head".  A bit grotty but purchased cheap in a group lot and provenanced to the ground on the Isle of Wight (a PAS coin) :

Maybe @Roerbakmix can help me with cleaning this one.  Maybe.  But I see enough silver to suppose it may show promise.

Great to see you here on Medieval Monday, @FitzNigel! 😊

[JeandAcre]

@Severus Alexander, from here, Any Wotan sceat that isn't fake gets its own parade, with an optional marching horn section.  (...Yes, there's a commensurately embarrassing story to go with that.  Thanks to other people's quick eyes, I was able to get a refund.)

Edited June 21, 2022 by JeandAcre