My newest Low Country gold..... Belgium (Flanders) Cavalier d'or (Commonly referred to as a Golden Rider) ND (1434-1477) Design: OBVERSE: The duke in knight’s armour and a raised sword in his right hand, seated on a horse galloping to the right; below, the word xFLADx . Legend “Ph”S: DEI:GRA: DVX:BVRG:E:COME – S :FLANDRIE (Philippus dei gratia dux Burgundiae et comes Flandriae ~ REVERSE: The Burgundian arms, with a Flanders lion-shiled inescutcheon, over a cross fleury; at the end of the legend, the Burgundian emblem, a briquet. Legend “☩SIT:NOMEN: DOMINI:BENEDICTVM:AMEN: Mint: Ghent Mintage: 944,099 References: Fr.183 / Delmonte #487 (Rarity Scale = R.2 – Very Rare) Specifications: Diameter – 28.0mm Weight – 3.590 g. @ 0.9920 Gold = . oz AGW Notes: - Minted under the rule of the Philip III (1419-1467); Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Artois and Franche-Comté; when his father, John the Fearless, was assassinated in 1419. Philip III was known as Philip the Good. Philip significantly enlarged the Netherlands possessions for the House of Burgundy and it was his troops who captured Joan of Arc and handed her over to the English in 1430. - In 1433 the duke introduced a uniform coinage system, which prescribed coinage of a single type and standard for provinces of Brabant, Flanders, Hainaut, and Holland. Each province was allowed a single mint. The new gold coin was the Philippus, which later became better known as the rider because of its obverse type. In numismatic circles this coin is commonly referred to as franc d’or a’ cheval or cavalier d’or. - This type continued with a motif whose prototype is the franc d’or a’ cheval or cavalier introduced in France in 1360 and was adopted by Louis de Male in Flanders in the mid 1300s. This type is altered from the earlier issues: the duke rides to the right, on the other his cloak and the caparison of his horse are not decorated with lys. The reverse still bears a cross fleury, but the center is overlaid with the quartered arms of Burgundy. - The finess of the rider, 992/1000, corresponds to that of the French salut d’or.
That's a real beauty Conrad! I have several Netherlands Gold Riders, both original and restrikes, but none from Belgium. Too rich for my blood! Are you planning on sending it to NGC?
Yes, I'm packaging this one and the salut d'or for submittal this week. I"m hoping to get AU-55 out of this one. The strike is not real strong (from my research typical for the type), but it has some underlying lustre, is nicely centered, with a nice full flan and full inscriptions. As you can see it has some dirt/crud in some of the legend/device crevices.
Another beauty ! :thumb: You keep this up and NGC may soon decide to start charging you for web space
A very nice coin, and interesting description and historical background too. Congratulations! PS- Interesting it is a called a Cavalier d'or (and not chevalier d'or).
I'm afraid those details are lost in history. At least I have never heard of any reference to the designers of these type of coins and I have studied them extensively. Typically though it was either the mintmaster himself or one of the engravers acting on direction from the Royal personage. But which one, is anybody's guess.
Eduard, Depending on how strict the language interpretation, it is in French a "Denier d'or Philippus, ou chevalier d'or " Also when I looked this coin up in another reference book of mine for the French title, cataloged by Pierre Bastien and Jean Duplessy, I found that it was minted on October 12, 1433. :kewl:
"My newest Low Country gold....." What is meant by "Low Country"? Does this refer to geography? Time period? I was curious. Thank you. Dittos on the beauty of your coin. It is indeed spectacular to view on this site (so it really must be a treat to see it in person).
Sunflower, Here is a great definition found at Wilkipedia: "The Low Countries, in Dutch De Nederlanden, are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany. The term is more appropriate to the era of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe when strong centrally governed nations were slowly forming and territorial governance was in the hands of a noble or of a noble house."
In my first post I noted: "This type continued with a motif whose prototype is the franc d’or a’ cheval or cavalier introduced in France in 1360 and was adopted by Louis de Male in Flanders in the mid 1300s. This type is altered from the earlier issues: the duke rides to the right, on the other his cloak and the caparison of his horse are not decorated with lys. The reverse still bears a cross fleury, but the center is overlaid with the quartered arms of Burgundy." For those not familar with the Flanders Louis de Male type franc d’or a’ cheval or cavalier from the mid 1300s. Here is a pic of a speciman I own. You can notice the differences.
