Medieval Monday!

Welcome @malinkyhoy! Interesting coins. The Scandinavians tended to copy English coins, but that was mostly during the reign of Æthelred II when loads of his coins were paid as Danegeld. Henry I seems a bit too late (and his coins were such a poor quality, I don’t know why anyone would copy them). Do you know where the coin was found? Size and weight?

here’s my only Henry I:
England
Henry I, r. 1100-1135 (1125-1135)
Bury St. Edmunds Mint, AR Penny, 17.16 mm x 0.8 grams
Obv.: +hEN[R]I[CVS]. Bust facing crowned and diademed, head three-quarters left, sceptre in right hand
Rev.: [+]G[ILEBE]RT [:ON] :E[DM]N. Quadrilateral with incurved sides and lis at each angle over cross fleury
Ref.: North 871, SCBC 1276, De Wit 3186

 

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Thanks for the welcome. My limited knowledge told me the same thing about Scandinavian imitations, and that a copy of a Norman coin was interesting, I'm not sure any would have been copied during the unrest of Stephen's reign? It was found in England but I'm not sure where, it weighed 0.99g is about 17mm and is made of silver.

Judging from the perforations I think it was definitely a genuine coin but given that one prominent expert couldn't ID after two years plus what I paid, it felt prudent to return it. I did also email Tony Abramson recently about it and he agreed that the eccentric portrait would explain my idea of it being an imitation, but from where I do not know.

 

Verrry interesting, @malinkyhoy. And Welcome! You obviously bring an extensive, not to mention impressive background to the forum. ...For what it's worth, I'm thinking your instincts are definitely going in the right direction with an English origin, and the near and otherwise resonant context of Stephen as the likely culprit. ...After toxic amounts of hideous fakes of the general period on ebay, it looks nothing like a fake.

 

My third Spanish coin...
Sancho IV was the first king to introduce the denomination Cornado, this series has 5 different mints to collect..the OP coin Burgos, Cuenca, Medina Del Campo(some controversy), Seville, and Toledo..

Spain, Castile and León..Sancho IV 1284-1295 Cornado 0.81gr..Burgos mint.
Obverse...SANCII REX...Crowned bust facing left..3 dots in the crown.
Reverse...CASTELLE LEGIONIS...Three towered castle (church?) surmounted by a cross rising from the centre tower with B/* either side of cross..Arched door.
Bautista-427 Variant.(Only reference I have from seller)

 

Here's my latest Salian denar. Heinrich III, 1039-1056, Worms, Dannenberg 847. Yeah, zero legends, but with the mintmark of Worms, the sort of pellet and crescent, in the one angle of the reverse cross.

 

Brilliant example, @Spaniard. Without any variation in the attribution, it's also (time to access MLA mode: )
Crusafont, Balaguer and Grierson, Medieval European Coinage vol. 6: The Iberian Peninsula. Cambridge UP, 2013 /paper 2017. P. 738, #442.
...Right, this is the only volume of MEC I have. Yet.

 

..i haven't got a coin to show right now per say, but i did just get in a repro flat top from the era of the thread for my helmet collection .. my 1st new one in over 10 years..

 

@ominus1, can you wear those?
Not long ago, someone here who wanted to remain anonymous gave me a gorgeous little Roman redware pot ...and a knife, c. 11th-14th centuries. Both with solid English provenance, likely regarding origin at least in the second case. The knife is about 4" (handle) and 8" (blade). With apologies, I don't have pics. But it's substantial enough that you could do some serious damage with it; doesn't strike me as a kitchen implement.

 

...this ones totally wearable...its the 1st one i've had that came equipped to do so...

 

..i'm gonna call it the 'none shall pass' flat top fancy version..can't wait to get to Medieval Times with it...

 

...What is Medieval Times? I'm wishing it was some kind of updated version of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

 

Medieval Times is a medieval themed restaurant/live show. I have never been there, but I imagine it is a lot like a renaissance fair meets Casa Bonita.

@ominus1 - are the people you purchased your helm from calling it a ‘flat top’? Just curious to the reasoning for the name (which I always assumed was just a a ‘Great Helm,’ but I think modern naming conventions for these things were probably just Victorian fictions anyway...)

 

Casa Bonita = Disney land of Mexican restaurants. Everything South Park said about it is true

 

Thank you.....I've only just started picking up a few medieval coins from over here, this is only my 3rd. The only book reference I have is an inexpensive beginner's guide in English: Lhotka, John F. and P.K. Anderson (1989), Survey of Medieval Iberian Coinages, New York.......Any online references that you'd recommend?

 

..haha...no, that was my creation( i have 2 'round top' sugarloaf types)..reminds me of the 'flat top' haircut of yesteryear......great helm eh?!...i like it....^&^

 

Sadly enough, they had the same kind of thing in London back to '73, the one time I was ever in Europe, on a family trip. They'd advertise in the UK TV Guide, 'What's On.' ...I'm sure they were better than the American, Casa Bonita version, but probably not by much.
...Speaking of American chain restaurants, I'll never forget the one time I was at a Red Lobster. (...As in, What? Better not be 'Green Lobster'....) I ordered their gumbo, which, of course, was the chain restaurant version. (...Have I told this story on a thread here before? Promise you, it left that kind of impression.) When I asked for Tabasco sauce, the waitress said, 'Oh! You like it spicy!'
...Well, Fine, except, it's (wait for it) Gumbo.

 

With apologies, nothing remotely comprehensive. That was why, when the reprint of that volume of MEC --in its paper reissue-- was going more cheaply than any other volume I'd ever seen, I leapt on it.
Since then, with condolences, the price has gone up, even on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Eur...erian+peninsula&qid=1620085640&s=books&sr=1-1

 

At extreme risk of pedantry --especially since you, @ominus1, will know all of this-- the flat-topped, full-face helm dates from around the end of the 12th century to the middle of the 13th, after which it starts to get rounder at the top, as you already noted.
What I have in print is an old BM monograph --from the same two weeks in London mentioned above-- Arms and Armour in England (1969 /1970), and an Osprey booklet, English Medieval Knight (Christopher Gravett, 2002).
But, Yeah, the distinction is important for the chronology. Richard I's second seal (post-1195) shows one with a crest (from Wikimedia Commons):

Here's a chess piece, c. 1250, showing the same without a crest (from the same place). Not the same one as shows up in both of the booklets, but good enough.

 

Here is my few Norman coins. The broken one is Stephen (1135-1154) silver penny, Watford type . North 873; SCBC 1278 .

Not really sure about the other three

 

Your Stephen one is obviously from England. The other three were actually minted in Normandy. They are beautifully ugly little enigmas