I don't have much if any knowledge of medieval coins as I tend to collect roman & pre-roman age coins... So I am hoping someone will identify this one for me and possibly locate the wildwinds reference # would be a help... Thanks! Sincerely Steven
That is a silver half-groschen from Lithuania, under Polish rule. There's a date at the top- 15-something- but I can't quite make it out in your photo. I have one (later date, but Mint State) in my collection. Yours is earlier- I think from the first decade of the 1500s (that's likely "150(x)" in the date.) They're pretty common coins and can usually be had in the $15-25 range in that sort of condition. They're really neat early dated silver, though, and I have always liked them.
These coins have so much going for them. They have interesting early dates They're silver They aren't too tiny There's a cool eagle on one side... and a charging knight on the other And they're astonishingly affordable for 500-year-old silver!
I wonder why they are so much less expensive than, say, English silver coins of the same time period?
I think it's just about who has the most money to collect the coins, and which countries/time periods mean most to them. England / Britain has played a world-wide role in shaping this Earth, and Poland less-so. As an American, I was inundated with English history (in school) and the only things I know about Poland are because of WW2. That being said, I am more inclined to collect coins from England because their history and the monarchs are familiar to me.
I agree in the USA British history is usually studied to some extent and far more likely than Polish history. At least most Americans would recognize names like Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Richard the Lion Heart and his consort Elenore of Aquitaine, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and all the way to Churchill. John Sobieski, Casimir Pulaski, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Marshal Pilsudski just don't ring a bell to most Americans. Still I think there might be something else. I see these Polish and Lithuanian coins all the time, not just at coin shows, but curiosity shops and flea markets. I think there may be something, more than just name recognition or familiarity that accounts for their abundance and ubiquity.
Jeeze, how could I have forgotten Copernicus whose studies and observations changed the whole world, literally.
Not to put too fine a point on it but while doing research on Copernicus for a friend & Rice U. Statistics Professor, I came across a few other Poles you might have heard of: Pope John Paul II, Frederik Chopin, Madame Curie, Wanda Landowska (Harpsichord), Zbigniew Brzezinski, Joseph Conrad, Baron Von Richthoven, Lech Walesa, Catherine The Great, & Czeslaw Slania (famous stamp engraver) just to name a few. Heck, was I impressed, J.T.
Interesting fact, when Marie Curie was born, Poland wasn't a country. When she named one of the elements she found "Polonium" it was a political statement.
Not to be too pedantic, but Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia was born to a German Lutheran family known as the House of Anhalt. The place of her birth, Stettin, may now be in Poland, but was then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. An interesting fact is that her first name at birth was Sophie.
And Copernicus was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region that had been part of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466. Still considered Polish! J.T.
Primary point: this coin is Lithuanian. As many of you know, Lithuania has that charging knight as its national emblem, down to this very day, so it's been on a number of more modern coins.