rick

can anyone here recommend a good (commonly or semi-commonly found) resource on medieval coins?

I am thinking I want to branch out in these directions... In fact, the more coins the GDJMSP posts... the more I think I want HIS collection - and now I am considering liquidating my US to gather upstart funds for this project.

National dealer

Rick,

I could not agree with you more. GD has the most beautiful coins. I have had the priviledge of seeing several of his coins. I truely wish more collectors would realize the effort and take the time to collect coins in the manner that GD does.
He knows how to grade, but beyond that, cherry picks with the best of them.
When you see his coins, it is easy to spot his love for these little discs of metal.

jody526

Rick,

I can't personally recommend a dealer, but if you do a google search for "medieval coins" (without quotes), you will find lots of dealers as well as lots of info on the subject.

Good luck!

sylvester

Any particular country of interest?

Any particular part of the medieval period? (Varies per country but generally what i'd call the three periods)

Early c.700-1199
Mid c.1200-1350
Late c.1350-1499

Some countries were still medieval in the early 1600s. Others had entered the Renaissance prior to the 1490s.

All depends what kinda designs you're after really.

GD could show you coins from all over the place. My own personal medieval interests are purely English. (Here's some cheaper silver pennies);


Class 5H Long cross penny of Henry III (1216-1272) struck probably in the 1250-1270 period. Total cost of this was about $40. WILLELM ON CANTE (Canterbury)




King John (1199-1216) Class 6A London Mint penny. RAVF ON LVND. This cost me about $140.




Below is perhaps one of the easiest denominations to get hold of, an Edward I (1272-1307) penny this is a nice portrait on a class 2B Bristol mint issue. Issued in about 1280 i think. I got this one down to an exact year. This would set you back about $50/55.

http://www.omnicoin.com/coin_view.aspx?id=894780


I got a whole load more littered around, at least two more Edward I pennies.

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

rick

those are beautiful examples sylvester. I don't know that I have picked a particular area of interest quite yet. Like my collections of foreign, it will most likely end up being all over the board, and whatever catches my eye as something I want to have.

At this weekend's coin show in Topeka, I purchased a coin showing Robert d'Anjou (1309-43) from Napels. It wasn't significantly expensive, but when I saw the piece and put it into my collection - well, I said 'I gotta have more like these'.

I will get a scan up as soon as I get one made - but I really like it.

sylvester

Be careful hammered coins are addictive...

In theory i don't actually collect them i really collect sixpences. But every time i look at a website/coinlist or go into a coin shop i'm straight into the hammered section before i've even realised it. It took me totally by surprise.

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

National dealer

There is a lot of truth in that sir. During the Palm Beach show, I was fortunately exposed to an early hammered gold coin. Instead of buying the coin right on the spot (like I should have) I allowed this piece to escape me.
Now in my quest to learn about these ancients, I find myself looking for the early hammered coins first. As no two can be exactly alike, this area of numismatics has a great deal of appeal to me.

sylvester

Another thing i find fascinating about hammered issues is that to date them you have to know how to read the codes.

So some issues can be distingished by bifoliate crowns, others by trifoliate. Some have say 9 tressels others have 8, some have fleurs at the cusps others don't.

Annulet stops, lombardics m's and n's, reversed letters. All of which tell you which issue and what date.

It's kinda like solving a crime, a modern coin with a date slapped on it just totally lacks that interactive challenge.

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

Ian

Mediaeval coinage is an immense subject area. There isn't even a definite cut off line separating ancients from mediaval from `modern'.

Although I have more than a few mediaeval coins, I seemed to skip past that period and got stuck into `ancients' for a spell, then back up to the 15/1600's again. That time frame borders the mediaeval period in some parts of the wrold, is well out of it in others, and still well into it for others. One thing I do know...while having a few mediaeval coins might be quite enriching, it is nowhere near as enriching as knowing the story behind the coin. As i said earlier, the subject area is immense, and never has the saying `buy the book before you buy the coin' been more true.

My best advice to you would be to forget about buying or selling anything until you have got hold of a few books to see which coins / countries / regions take your interest the most THEN check out the markets for those coins (check going prices on ebay, dealers lists etcetera), only then should you decide on your collecting strategy.

Sure....it sounds right, doesn't it?....but we are all emotive creatures, ....and yes, I know that I don't stick to my own advice either at times....but that doesn't mean it isn't sound (especially for someone going into terra nova). ;-)

Seriously, get yourself some books from a library or a car boot sale or whatever and get as good an idea as you can of what is out there first. Worry about how to finance your new addiction once you know what it is that you intend feeding.

Ian

__________________
A few of my coins:
http://www.omnicoin.com/?collection=Ian
The real me:
http://www.imb4u2.myby.co.uk/stuff/ian.gif

sylvester

I haven't seen mediaeval spelt like that for a while. I used to spell it like that myself but my teachers marked me down for it saying it wasn't the correct form, because it was a later spelling derived from the continent and not the true English spelling.

So thus far i'm sticking with medieval whilst any marks depend upon it, but i fully intend to revert to my mediaeval variant before too long.

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

sylvester

Admittedly i used to write it, mediæval.

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

Ian

Maybe your teachers knew something that my teachers didn't.

I've been using it that way (swimming against the tide of modernism and US influence on the english language, since I studied latin in the 60's)

I think that it is `medieval' that is the would be usurper, not the other way around. ;-)

Ian The Archaic.

__________________
A few of my coins:
http://www.omnicoin.com/?collection=Ian
The real me:
http://www.imb4u2.myby.co.uk/stuff/ian.gif

Ian

:-)

OK...so would I if I knew how to get the conjoined a and e on my keyboard. What's the alt+ (?) code then....?

Ian The Resolute

__________________
A few of my coins:
http://www.omnicoin.com/?collection=Ian
The real me:
http://www.imb4u2.myby.co.uk/stuff/ian.gif

sylvester

alt + 145

I like you Ian thought that medieval was the usurper.


I'm a big fan of the æ, so i tend to go out of my way to include it in words where it should be. Like Encylopædia. Archæology, ærial photography, Æthelred II.

Infact nothing rattles me more than seeing people spell Æthelred as Ethelred... *shudder*

Oh by the way Æ is as the above but 146

__________________


To reiterate Roy's words , 'a £0.01 coin is a penny, and not a cent, the UK have never issued cents'

Ian

Æ by gum lad! (as they might have said once upon a time in ye olde Yorkshire)

Brilliant! Thanks for that :-)

__________________
A few of my coins:
http://www.omnicoin.com/?collection=Ian
The real me:
http://www.imb4u2.myby.co.uk/stuff/ian.gif