Coin Talk

3 KREUZER COIN - AUSTRIA - FERDINAND KARL - HABSBURG
Hall Mint
Date: A.D. 1655



Obverse: Portrait crowned head right - FERDIN CAROL D:G ARCHID: AV: / 1655

Reverse: Two coat of arms (Further Austria and Tyrol), rossetta above and denomination below - COM: TYROLIS DVX BVRGVND (3)

This coin was minted after the regency of Regency of his mother Claudia de Medici. It is a variant with the date displayed vertically in front of bust.

Austrian Silver 3 Kreuzer Depicting Ferdinand Charles (Karl) of the House of Habsburg, Archduke of Further Austria, Duke of Burgundy, and Count of Tyrol. Obverse: FERDIN [ANDUS] CAROL[VS] • D[EI] : G[RATIA] • ARCHID[VX] : AV[STRIAE] : - Ferdinand Charles by the Grace of God, Archduke of Austria / Reverse: DVX • BVRGVND[IAE] : COM[ES] : TYROLIS - Duke of Burgundy and Count of Tyrol.

Brief History of the Habsburgs in Austria: it is hard to be brief when giving account of the House of Habsburg but...

As I have mentioned in a previous thread, many numismatists believe that this coin was issued in AD 160 to commemorate the birth of Marcus Aurelius' and Faustina II's daughter Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor, known simply as Cornificia.[1]


Faustina Junior, Augusta AD 147-176
Roman AR denarius, 3.41 g, 18.1 mm, 12:00
Rome, December, AD 160.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: FECVND AVGVSTAE, Faustina (as Fecunditas) facing, head left, between two children (thought to represent Faustina III and Lucilla), holding two more in hand (thought to represent Fadilla and Cornificia).
Refs: RIC 676; BMCRE 89; Cohen 95; Strack 520e; RCV 5251; CRE 178; Dinsdale 005120.

She was either the ninth child[2] born to the imperial couple or, more...

Let's talk about this 23rd day of August :
In Roman religion, Vulcan is a very ancient god, of uncertain origin: for some, coming from Ostia, he would be the ancient god of the Tiber; for others, it would be a Mediterranean god who entered the Roman religion through Etruria (cf. the Etruscan god Velchans). It appears in the oldest Roman calendars (known as "of Numa") and would have been introduced in Rome by Titus Tatius. Another tradition attributes to Romulus the consecration of the Volcano.


Jupiter Column in Arlon

Its oldest place of worship was the Volcanal or Area Volcani, leaning against the Capitol, above the Comitium, containing a sacred tree, which was considered to be contemporary with the birth of Rome, as well as the statues of Romulus and Horatius Cocles. In addition, Vulcan had a temple of more recent construction, outside the Pomerium, on the field of Mars, where the god stood...

"Whenever you desire to cheer yourself, think upon the merits of those who are alive with you; the energy of one, for instance, the modesty of another, the generosity of a third, of another some other gift. For nothing is so cheering as the images of the virtues shining in the character of contemporaries, and meeting so far as possible in a group. Therefore you should keep them ready to your hand."
-Marcus Aurelius Meditations, VI.48

In my last post on one of the earliest coins of Hadrian, I mentioned that the featured coin inappropriately carried over the titles of Trajan on the coin of Hadrian. This was perhaps a result of poor succession planning and the hurried efforts during the transition from Trajan. The...

King Edward VI was the son that Henry VIII had always wanted. To produce this heir, Henry changed the history of England itself. Henry died in 1547, likely feeling that he had fulfilled his sacred duty to carry on the Royal succession, but he had done so far more than he could possibly imagine, just not with his only son. Of course Henry never knew that Edward died at the age of 15 and so never fully ruled the kingdom left to him. Edward and his regents apparently had plans to build a strict Protestant state, but of course those never materialized.

Sadly, his father had debased the coinage to such an extent that the economy had faltered to a startling degree. Rather than addressing the issue, Edward's protectors instead sought further profit by continuing this practice. As Edward wrote in his diary on August 18, 1551: "The shilling fell from nine pence to six pence, the groat from three pence to two pence, the twopence to a penny, the penny to a halfpenny, the halfpenny to a...

Antoninianus - IMP TRAJAN DECIUS
Rome Mint
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius



Born: A.D. 201
Emperor: A.D. 249-251

Obverse: Portrait radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right - IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG

Reverse: Decius on horseback with right hand raised in salute and holding scepter - ADVENTVS AVG

Inscriptions: IMP(erator) C(aesar) M(essius) Q(uintus) TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG(ustus) / ADVENTVS AVG(ustus)

Emperor Caesar Messius Quintus Trajianus Decius Augustus / Arrival of Augustus (Commemorates the arrival of the Emperor to Rome)


Early Career and Ascension: Decius is thought to have been born in Lower Pannonia, possibly in the town of Budalia near the city of Sirmium (modern Serbia). There is uncertainty as to the origins of his family as the name of his father is not known. He is the first in a line of emperors who would...

First I quick story, have a buddy that bought off of Ampex and said one was odd. He knew I knew Kennedy's so he asked...couldn't get the eight correct but it seemed heavy. 16 months later I get my hands on it....

Sound test - not right, yet not like a clad coin either but off when directly compared with a real 1964.


Next the weight, the most important test. (I thought)



Definitely heavy....


Its a good fake, cast I bet, but still trying to look at it up close, USB camera doesn't work since billy gates forced me to Win10.

Still a pretty good job was done here..







Final test, yeah I know should have been earlier but was 99% convinced it was counterfeit.

The picture speaks for itself......

From the Stack's auction at the Bellegio a couple weeks ago... I love coins with a story, and this one really has a story.

Piastre of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany aka Davenport-8386. Population 1/0 finer at PCGS. Reverse depicts Christ over the River Jordan.

First machine struck silver crown in Florence, very high tech for its day.

Interesting guy Francesco, likely off'd his Austrian wife to elope with his Venetian mistress Bianca Cappello, who likely off'd her husband just prior to marrying Francesco. They eventually died a day apart and historians have argued ever since if they were poisoned or died from malaria.

The art collection at the Uffizi and Pitti Palace? All of it belonged to Francesco, though the Uffizi itself dates to his father and the Pitti Palace much earlier.

There is a hotel in Florence called the Palazzo Bianca Cappello where the future duchess lived while waiting for the Duke to become "available". A street view pic of it below. It's...

Earlier this summer, I was lucky enough to bid on what I considered to be three very original bust dimes, all from the same little collection. I won them all. They were all part of an estate that was being settled, and the coins were sent to auction by his relatives. What made this so risky and exciting, however, is that the seller's pics made it all a huge guessing game as to what exactly I was bidding on. Were the coins AU? Were they UNC? Personally, I couldn't be sure, but I hoped. So I chased them in the bidding war.

Below you will see all 3 dimes. First, the seller's pics with the price I paid, followed by my pics, followed by the PCGS grades and TrueViews. Where exactly did these coins come from? They all arrived tucked into little paper envelopes. How fascinating is it that this collector had a relatively small collection of such pristine coins? I am amazed, and I feel very blessed. It's always a risk buying from bad pictures. I am not a traditional gambler, but I do...

Hello everyone! I've had these two odd tin cash type coins for awhile now and am finally getting around to researching them more and wanted to share the odd story of the coins' history here. These two examples are part of a scarce series of tin coins in the style of Chinese cash coins that were apparently minted locally in Palembang, Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.

If you're familiar at all with Chinese cash coins then you know that they are easily recognizable by the square center hole surrounded on all four sides by a Chinese character that together reads the legend, usually the emperor's name or the name of the era of rule. The hole in the center allowed for merchants to put standardized amounts of the coins onto a closed string for quick and easy trading.