Post your latest medieval!

[Coinmaster]

Hi all, maybe it's nice to share your latest medieval coin acquisition and tell why you bought it?

Below is a coin I won last week in the Heritage Auctions Europe auction. Description:

Utrecht Bisdom (1010-1528) - Hendrik van Vianden (1250-1267) - Denier or Penning ND Utrecht (vdCh. 9.12-14) – 0.48 g. – Obv. Bishop with crozier and bible (+)HENR(ICVS) / Rev. Forked cross +H(-)V(---)IERN instead of +TRAIECTVM Interesting variant! - ex-Berkman - collection Coenen

Beside the interesting reverse text, I wanted it because of the pointing vinger of the bisshop! See also:

[Nap]

My most recent coin-

Penny of Edward the Confessor, king of England 1042-1066
Mint: Hertford
Moneyer: Opi
PACX long cross type, S.1171
O: +EDPARD .RECX:
R: +EPII ON HEORT:

I bought it because the dealer who sold it to me asked me to help with attribution- he usually does not trade in coins of this era and wanted to confirm the mint/moneyer attribution.  I looked it up and then asked if it was available.  It’s not my first coin of Edward, but it’s a type I didn’t have, and a slightly scarcer mint.

[Grimulfr]

Danes of York, Cnut penny, 'Cunnetti' type, S.993.  The most common of the Viking coins from York but this example has two small additional crosses that flank the patriarchal cross on the obverse - this variant was not noted in Lyon and Stewart's classification of these coins from the Cuerdale Hoard. The coin is much nicer in hand than in the picture!

[Roerbakmix]

I actually bought this Madelinus tremissis (that was on my wish list for ages) today. I'll post a more detailed thread later, but thrilled to have finally added it to the collection!

It's a very nice addition to my Dronrijp:

... and Nietap type:

I'm struggling a bit with the colour settings of my photo setup; the coins are more 'goldish yellow' in hand. Anyway, third early medieval gold - happy 🙂

[Edessa]

Denmark. Svend II Estridsen, AD 1047–1075. AR Penning (17mm, 0.60g). Viborg mint. Obv: Draped bust left; cross above; lis-tipped sceptre before. Rev: Voided long cross with triple-crescent ends and pellet at center; trefoils and crescents in alternating quarters. Ref: Hauberg 57; cf. Hede I, 58. Very Fine, very slight bend. Ex Bruun Rasmussen 2305 (5 Feb 2023), Lot 5267.

Denmark. Svend II Estridsen, AD 1047–1075. AR Penning (17mm, 0.58g). Viborg mint, moneyer Ketil. Imitating the "Helmet" type of Aethelread II combined with a short cross type of Cnut. Obv: ✠CP[...]IO Bare-headed and draped bust of Svend II Estridsen to left, holding lis-tipped scepter in his right hand. Rev: oided long cross with pellet in center and triple crescent ends, over square with trefoil at each point; between triple crescent ends, blundered legend and ✠. Ref: Hauberg 58. Very Fine, very slight bend. Ex Bruun Rasmussen 2305 (5 Feb 2023), Lot 5268.

[JeandAcre]

Wow.  Some amazing stuff here.  Loving all of it.  Thanks, @Coinmaster, for the OP --nope, never saw one of those before; it's fantastic.

With apologies, when @Coinmaster posted this, I'd just posted both of my latest acquisitions elsewhere.  But these two rate as recent to recent-ish.  They're part of a draft of an epic (/verbose) OP about the milieu of El Cid that, well, might get finished, one day.

Andalusia /Muslim Iberia.  Taifa of Zaragoza. Ahmed I al-Muqtadir, 1046-1082 CE.  Very base billon dirham, AH 473 /c. 1081 CE.  Album 388 ("generally very coppery"), Vives 1211, Prieto 268n.

From the opposite, early side of the same reign, you can get something like this.  Watch how an issue in much finer silver eventually gets 'reduced' (clipped, possibly under official auspices), as if it was being 'retrofitted' to circulate with the later, base issues.

Taifa of Saraqusta /Zaragoza.  'Imad al-Dawla Ahmad I ibn Sulayman, al-Muqtadir, AH 441-475 /1049-83 CE.  AR dirham (clipped /’reduced’); 1053 CE.
Album 388; MEC vol. 6, Plate 2, #27, 28; Prieto 265f.; Vives 118. 

These two, in their present state, demonstrate the profound economic consequences of the Reconquista, following the collapse of the residual but still unitary Umayyad caliphate in the 1030s CE.  Andalusia split up into mutually autonomous emirates (taifas).  Now that it was as fragmented as the remaining, Visigothic Christian polities along the northern fringe, they wasted no time exploiting the situation.  Sustained raiding progressed to the exaction of tribute from individual taifas and, before too long, the first, dramatic phases of territorial expansion.  The progression evokes the phases of Viking expansion in northwestern Europe, from raids to Danegeld to conquest.

Edited June 3, 2023 by JeandAcre

[Pellinore]

Very interesting, this hot and changing history of medieval Spain. I recently bought this little gold coin of Islamic Toledo. 

7405. AV ¼ dinar, Dhu’l Nunid of Toledo: Sharaf al-Dawla Yahya I, 1043-1075, NM, ND. 14 mm, 1.05 gr. Album 396, Prieto-335, VyE-1110, ruler cited only as al-Ma'mun in the obverse center, part of kalima on the reverse.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Pellinore

[JeandAcre]

@Pellinore, Yes, Yes, and Yes! :<}   Weirdly, in light of their historical resonance, the fractional dinars of the taifas can still  be some of the cheapest medieval AV that you can find.  Here's a little more of my sh-t stuff along similar lines.  They eventually follow the same trajectory as the AR dirhams.

 

Taifa of Valencia.  Abd al-Malik, al-Muzaffar, AH 452-457 /1060/1 -1065 CE.  AV fractional (/clipped /reduced) dinar (no mint). 

Album 377; MEC Pl. 2, 26; Prieto 165; Vives 1078.  Also the Tonegawa Collection, citing Prieto and Vives: http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Valencia.html ; 
the Zeno Oriental Coins Database (citing no references):
https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=105567.

Followed by this one from the following reign, visibly debased to the point of being electron (edit; gasp) electrum (granted that the gold is more evident in hand).

Taifa of Toledo and Valencia. Yahya al-Mamun (emir of Toledo 1043 /1044-1075 CE, emir of Valencia 1065-1075 CE).

 Fracción de dinar en electrón. (V. 1097) (Prieto 333).

It took the Almoravids, Moors arriving from modern Morocco and Algeria, to even slow the 'Frankish' expansion southward.  Thank you, a different story.
 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by JeandAcre
'Weird' a weird word, even from the Old English. --Nope, still weird.

[Coinmaster]

7 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

It took the Almoravids, Moors arriving from modern Morocco and Algeria, to even slow the 'Frankish' expansion southward.  Thank you, a different story.

Indeed! FYI: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/02/24/dna-from-earliest-muslim-graves-in-france-reveals-north-african-origins/

[ewomack]

This Byzantine tetarteron dates from the 12th century, so I guess it qualifies as medieval.

Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1183), Æ Tetarteron; Thessalonica; Obv: ⨀/Γ/Є to left and P-over-w/Γ/O/S to right, half-length bust of St. George facing, holding spear and shield ; Rev:  MANɣHΛ ΔЄCΠΟΤ, bust of Manuel facing, holding labarum and globus cruciger; 20 mm,3.24g; DOC 18; Sear 1975

[JeandAcre]

12 hours ago, Coinmaster said:

Indeed! FYI: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/02/24/dna-from-earliest-muslim-graves-in-france-reveals-north-african-origins/

Thanks again!  Yep, the borders of southern Europe were never other than porous.  The Berbers were notorious as mercenaries from Roman times.  Here they are on Trajan's Column, stomping some Dacians.  Can't lie, I like the dreadlocks.

[JeandAcre]

I'm liking the notion of continuing this thread in favor of the 'Medieval Monday' one.  From here, anyway, Mondays were never the optimal day.  But (drum-roll, please) these were just won, variously on Biddr and French ebay.

Bohemond I as Prince of Antioch (1098-1100, 1102-1104).  Follis.

Obv. St. Peter, haloed; right hand raised in blessing [/left hand holding cross].  [In two vertical lines, as in Byzantine practice: PETROC in Greek.]

Rev. Cross pommetee; floral motif at bottom.  In angles: B [/H] M [/T].  Malloy, CCS (1st ed), Antioch (p.198) no. 1.

What sold this was the 'B' and 'M.'  ...Here's a question: can anyone tell whether St. Peter's benediction follows Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic practice?  The configuration of the hand is different, but I can't recall the details.

Likely from another famous Norman (no known relation):

Normandy, Richard II (996-1026), Richard III (1026-7), Robert I (1027-1035), or William the Bastard (1035-1087).  Denier of Rouen.

Obv.  Cross annelee, crosslet in center.  Four triangular facades (still riffing on Richard I's imitation of Louis I's 'temple' issue, from the second half of the 10th century).

Cross, pellets in angles.  +[R]OTOMAGVS ('S' couchant).  Duplessy 29.

This is especially fun for being my latest example with a readable legend.  As some of us know only too well, from the 11th -earlier 12th centuries, the Norman series really heads south.  The contrast with Anglo-Norman pennies, which have every appearance of having continued seamlessly from the existing Anglo-Saxon minting infrastructure, couldn't be more dramatic.

Then there was this --I promise you, even for a common Carolingian, this was on the cheaper side of life.

Charles II, the Bald, King of Carolingian Francia 840-877.  Denier of Chartres.  'GDR' / post-Edict of Nantes type, from 864.

Obv.  'KAROLVS' monogram; +C[/'G']RATIA D-I REX (Gratia Dei Rex). 

Rev.  +CARH[/'N']OTIS CIVITAS.  20 mm.  Depeyrot (3rd ed., 2008), 278.

In earlier medieval coins, one ongoing motif is how creative the Medieval Latin legends can get.  This is most obvious in the orthography of mint signatures, maybe most conspicuously in French Carolingian and earlier feudal issues.  I wanted this example for the contrast of the mint name with this anonymous issue, dating to the feudal hegemony of the counts of Blois (and later Champagne).  Granted, on a somewhat smaller module, it may be as easy as an elision of the Carolingian version.

Chartres.  Anonymous, 10th-early 11th c.  

Obv. Perhaps the iconic 'Bleso-chartain' profile, after which the whole motif was named.

Rev. +CARTIS CIVITAS.  Duplessy 431.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by JeandAcre

[Coinmaster]

4 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Perhaps the iconic 'Bleso-chartain' profile, after which the whole motif was named.

Never seen this one, it seems a highly artistic profile of the count of Chartres. See also:

https://www.poinsignon-numismatique.com/coins_r5/other-feudal-coins_c18/orleanais_p2396/orleanais-comte-de-chartres-eudes-ii-1004-1037-obole-de-type-bleso-chartrain_article_95963.html

[expat]

Arrived this morning, Crusafont i Sabater 1992, 318.

JAIME I. (1213-1276 AD). Cross of Caravaca.
Obverse: ARAGON., bust of King Jaime, crowned and draped, left.
Reverse: IACOBVS REX., cross of Caravaca.

1.09g. 18mm.

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by expat
Added ref details

[John Conduitt]

24 minutes ago, expat said:

not yet got an attribution ref#

I think the only one is as Ursus mentioned: Crusafont i Sabater 1992, 318.

[John Conduitt]

Not medieval, but hammered and interesting. I always think I'm more interesting when I'm hammered.

James I First Coinage Halfpenny, 1604-1605

Tower. Silver, 10.7mm, 0.26g. Portcullis; no legend; initial mark lis above. Long cross moline with pellets in angles; no legend (S 2651). Ex Dr David Rogers; Seaby 1985.

The central piercing was probably made for the 1696 Great Recoinage. When hammered coinage was being phased out in England, hammered coins were punched ‘without diminishing the silver’ to indicate they were the correct weight and hadn’t been clipped. Anything underweight had to be exchanged for milled or would cease to be accepted. The piercings were made anywhere on the coin and were invariably untidy, as if made by nails, which distinguishes them from neat holes near the rim made for jewellery. A plausible alternative is that these were the coins nailed to the gallows when a criminal was executed for coining offences. But although such pieces are not common, there would have to have been a lot of executions for this to be the explanation.

[John Conduitt]

Another new medieval and this time with a find spot - my first Edward IV hoard coin. It's also my first coin from the Bristol mint (from any era).

Edward IV 1st Reign Light Coinage Class VII Groat, 1466-1467

Bristol. Silver, 25mm, 3.09g. B on breast, quatrefoils by neck, fleur de lis on cusps; initial mark crown (S 2004; N 1580). From the East Knoyle (Wiltshire) Hoard 2018, which comprised 3 gold ryals and 36 silver groats from Henry VI and Edward IV and was deposited by 1473. Most were similarly dated groats and in good condition, with a significant proportion from Bristol, suggesting they came straight from the mint or were received in one payment. Portable Antiquities Scheme: SOM-AEF1FC.

[Pellinore]

This silver Dutch coin gives me great pleasure, because it was minted only 12 miles from my place of birth, 900 years ago. Give or take a few miles or years. Though I already have a coin minted in Groningen, the city where I was born, issued some decades earlier by the bishop of Utrecht, I was impressed that a tiny village nine centuries ago was apparently important enough to mint silver coins for the count of Frisia, probably a serious rival of the bishop. My roots are more Groningen than Frisia, but - what does that mean 900 years across time. 

It was the heyday of the cloisters and churches that brought prosperity to the north of the Netherlands. Witness many 12th and 13th century churches that you still may admire, on artificial mounds that defied the sea. That was the clay that produced me. 

4721. Friesland, count Egbert II (1068-1090). AR denarius, Garrelsweer. Obv. Crowned frontal bust. + ECBERTVS. Rev. Frontal busts of the apostles Simon and Judas under a cross. + GEREVVROI. 19 mm, 0.67 gr. Toned. Trace of folding. Ilisch I, 22.9 var., Dan. 530 var. 

 

[Ursus]

Two small northern German additions. I bought them in May but only now found the time to take pictures and fully attribute them:

Rostock, City, AR witten (Slavic standard), 1361–1381 AD. Obv: +MO[NETA:R]OSTOKCE; griffin l. Rev: +[CIVITS:]MAGNOPOL; cross with quatrefoil and pellet in center. 18mm, 0.79. Ref: Grimm 837/840/848.

Hamburg, City, AR hohlpfennig, late 14th/early 15th century. Obv: nettle leaf within city gate, trident above. Rev: incuse design (bracteate). 16mm, 0.33g. Ref: Jesse 174/175.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Ursus

[Pellinore]

In the course of time, I bought a number of these, just because I couldn't resist them. This one came in today.

They are pretty large coins (this one: 38 mm diameter, 6.20 gr. weight), and a type of fiduciary silver dirhams made of copper with a thin silver wash (that is rarely present). This is a broad AE dirham of the Qarakhanid dynasty that reigned in Central Asia from about 990-1210 AD. The coin was minted in Kasan, now in Uzbekistan, then one of the Western Qarakhanid vassal appanages, reigned by one Mu'izz ad-Din Togril Khan, and the date is 605 AH = 1208 AD, just before the dynasty succumbed to the short-lived Khwarezmshah dynasty. A beauty in my opinion. And so much unlike contemporary European coinage. 

 

This is to put it in perspective for you: 

 So - large.

[ChrisB]

I just picked up this common Bulgaria Gros of Ivan Aleksander. It has nice surfaces. It's nicer than the photo shows. 

 

And then won this lot of Russian wire money from a CNG auction. I'm kind of regretting it now because I need to attribute all of them.

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by ChrisB

[John Conduitt]

18 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

And then won this lot of Russian wire money from a CNG auction. I'm kind of regretting it now because I need to attribute all of them.

 

Most of them look like Peter I - ЦРЬ И ВЕЛИКIИ КНЗЬ ПЕТРЪ АЛЕѮIЕВИЧЬ (Tsar and Grand Duke Pyotr Alexeyevich, where T in ПЕТРЪ looks like m), with some Ivan IV - КHSЬ ВЕЛÏKI IBAN (Grand Prince Ivan), like the one in the middle with green on it.

Edited July 27, 2023 by John Conduitt

[Ursus]

My most recent medieval, a small 13th century bracteate minted for the Benedictine abbey of Kempten, which was considered a principality in the Middle Ages and thus had its own mint. I bought it since it shows a (somewhat comical) portrait of St. Hildegard, who is also known as Hildegard of Vinzgouw, the second wife of Charlemagne and mother of Louis the Pious:

Princely Abbey of Kempten, AR bracteate penny, c. 1230 AD. Obv: crowned bust of St. Hildegard  with lily sceptre and cross; pseudo-lettering around border. Rev: incuse design (bracteate). 20mm, 0.38g. Berger 2512–3; Slg. Bonhoff 1837–40.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Ursus

[John Conduitt]

That reminds me that I still don't have a bracteate. That's an interesting one. A bit like Munch's The Scream 🤣

This is from Hacı I Giray, founder of the Crimean Khanate during the disintegration of the Golden Horde.

Hajji I Giray 1st Reign Aqche, 1454

Khanate of Crimea. Silver, 14mm, 0.55g. Tamga of the Giray Khans; Struck in Qrim 867. Sultan Hajji Giray (Zeno 194238). From Pavlograd, Ukraine.

Edited September 15, 2023 by John Conduitt

[Ursus]

8 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

A bit like Munch's The Scream 

That's true – although I also had to think of these guys: