What is your oldest "dated" coin?

Hi folks.

I thought I would share my oldest dated coin (as in one that has the date on the coin itself). I believe it is a 1545 silver denar. I really like it!

What is your oldest "dated" coin? Post a picture of it in this thread!

Simon

 

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Im far behind ya..1831...

 

No date, but I have the oldest example of a doubled ear, hands down, bar none.

From a geologic formation circa 450,000,000 YBP, before anything even had ears.

 

Just an 1806 Bust Half .

 

1897 dime and quarter. sad right? :O

 

I

It's also sad to have only two coins from the 1800s...the large cent pictured and an XF toned Columbian Expo half, 1892.

 

How about 1537 -

 

Dang...got me beat by 8 years.

 

Oldest British, from Scotland but of course - Scotland has the distinction of minting the first dated coins in the British isles in 1539.



Queen Mary half lion or 22/- Scots in gold from 1553. As much of Mary's coinage reflected what was going on in her life - this one reflects her minority and the fact that her cousin James Hamilton the Earl of Arran was regent when this coin was minted. His initials I G flank the lion shield. His regency was shortlived and was surrendered to Mary of Guise the following year.

Mary was young when this coin was minted, shortly thereafter she would be married to the Dauphin Francis of France, along with her subsequent marriages they were reflected on her coinage.

 

Smokin coin right there.

 

1675 2/3 Taler from Germany

 

Sorry for the poor photo, but here's my oldest with a date:

8 Maravedis of King Philip IV of Spain, minted in Madrid in 1661

 

here's mine...



the reverse shows an EOP, translates to 175 SE on the seleucid calander, or between October 138-Sept. 137 BC on ours.

 

I have a couple of ancients that display a numbered year on it.

First is my denarius of Vespasian. He became Roman emperor in 69 AD. While he was emperor, he became a consul as well (basically the Roman version of a prime minister) in the fifth year of his reign, and on coins of this year this was displayed as COS V ( V is the Roman numeral for 5). So 69 + 5 = the year my coin was struck: 74 AD.



Technically my next is early medieval, but its basically the same concept. This is my decanummium of Byzantine emperor Justinian I. On the reverse has ANNO (Latin for year) to the left-hand side on the reverse, and on the right, the Roman numerals XXXVII (37) in three lines. This shows that it was made in the 37th year of his reign, which started in 527 AD. Add 527 and 37 and you get 564 AD, the year it was struck (Justinian I died the next year, 565 AD, making this one of the last coins struck in his name).

 

Niiiice! Ancients are always interesting!

 

Another dated ancient.....

Ptolemaic Kingdom, Ptolemy II Soter (285 - 246 B.C.), Silver tetradrachm
Obv:– Diademed head of Ptolemy I right wearing aegis
Rev:- PTOLEMAIOY [SOTERWS], eagle standing left, head left, on thunderbolt, wings closed, PT and ME monograms left, date AL and Q right
Minted in Galilee, Ake Ptolemais, Ptolemaic Era Year 31 which transleates to B.C. 255
Reference:– BMC.112 var. Svoronos 774 pl. XXV/10 (4 ex.) SNG Cop.470. Delepierre- Gülnar 2/4074 pl. 129(6 ex.)



Martin

Sorry to all you non-ancient people who are fed up with seeing ancients.....

 

Ah, I can cope with that. And since in the initial post the word "dated" is in inverted commas anyway, I find it very interesting to differentiate: on one hand, an old(est) coin with an "AD type" date - on the other hand, coins from other places or times with other dating systems.

Christian

 

As pointed out by Scottishmoney, the English were a little later in introducing recognisable "Christian Era" dates. I believe the first were in 1551 in the reign of Edward VI, only surviving son of Henry VIII:



This one a Crown, so about 1 oz of silver, similar in size to a Morgan Dollar!

 

But my personal favourite is this Elizabeth I milled Sixpence from 1562. This was our first foray into machine made coins, and for various reasons it was not deemed a success, so it was the 1650s before we returned to them.



For scale this is about the same size as a US Quarter.

 

The Eloye Mestrelle minted coins were loathed by Royal Mint workers because frankly milled coinage took longer to manufacture and was seen as a long term threat caused by a Frenchman. They moaned and groaned long enough that the milled coinage was dumped. Eloye Mestrelle went on to be convicted of counterfeiting in and suffering the consequence in 1578.

I like those tanners myself, Queen Elizabeth is of course, one of the penultimate monarchs in the British Isles still. Being very vain as she was her portrait on her coinage reflects her opinion of herself.

Such said, I once owned one of these 1562 tanners meself, but alas ah gave it for a lass an' she's owned it for some 17+ years the nows. Years ago I imaged it but canna find the image of it. Thankfully she didna bend it an' cast it off!