A pair of prize medals from the 1867 Coventry and Midland Exhibition, by W.F. Taunton for Ottley, Birmingham, 70mm. The gilt version was presented to the Earl of Clarendon and is encased in a silver ring with glass lunettes.
I managed to acquire another major world coins target - an 1840 East India Company rupee. Nothing earth-shaking, they minted close to a billion (!) of these, but it's a nice, attractively toned, mint-state specimen. I prefer the divided legend types. Photos were tough through the plastic, but I'm happy enough with the results. Hope you enjoy! BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1600-1874 AR Rupee (30.5mm, 11.66g, 1h) Dated 1840. Bombay or Calcutta mint Obverse: VICTORIA QUEEN, bust of Queen Victoria left Reverse: EAST INDIA COMPANY around wreath containing ONE RUPEE in two lines, Arabic translation below; 1840 along bottom References: Numista 24095 Mintage: 398,554,000 In PCGS encapsulation, graded MS 62 Attractively toned. The British East India Company was founded in 1600 and over time grew to become the largest and most powerful corporation in the world, empowered to acquire territories, mint its own coinage, conduct diplomacy, and wage war. The East India Company maintained its own standing army, which at one point numbered more than a quarter million troops – twice the size of the regular British Army. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757 the EIC extended its control over much of the Indian subcontinent as well as Hong Kong, which it maintained until the British Government assumed direct rule over India following the Indian Mutiny of 1857. In the following years, the East India Company rapidly declined, and the company that once accounted for half of the world’s trade was finally dissolved in 1874. The London Times offered this obituary of the EIC: “It accomplished a work such as in the whole history of the human race no other trading Company ever attempted, and such as none, surely, is likely to attempt in the years to come.”
AU-50. 1776, 5 Kopeks, Russia-Siberia. MS-66. 1924, 50 Sen, Japan. I really like the designs of Japanese coinage. This particular coin is extremely lustrous.
Austro-Hungarian Gold 10 Crown of Franz Joseph I (minted in Kremnica in 1912): The above is not a new acquisition, rather the first historical coin I ever bought as an adult, but since the original pictures aren't online anymore, I have taken pictures of it.
Umayyad Gold Dinar of al-Walid I (minted in Damascus sometime between 705 and 715):: This isn't a new coin, rather the second historical coin I bought as an adult.