Hope you like it. Its a Portuguese coin from the reign of King Ferdinand I (1367-83) We call these coins "Barbudas". It is not clear where the name came from. + SI : DNS : MICHI : AIVTOR : NON : TIME : SI DOMINUS MIHI ADJUTOR NON TIMEBO (The Lord is he who helps me, I shall not fear) + FERNANDUS : REX : PORTUGALI : ALG
It's one of the iconic type coins of Portuguese hammered coins. Rarely do they appear with full and readable legend.
Neet. Appreciate ancient coins with "pictures" on them. insights into society of that time. In this case, the Nobility.
The King is wearing his Armour Helm. There are two types of Helm for this same coin. This is the other type. (This one is top quality, expensive little coins these ones)
It is the "L" letter mintmark, corresponding to the coin having been minted in Lisbon. Porto (second biggest city in Portugal) also minted coins of this type (with "P" mintmark) and are even scarcer and valued.
Very awesome! I love the depiction of the King's armored head! ...and who says Latin is a dead language?
Interesting coin. The coin name "barbuda" or "bearded" might be a slang term for the armor covering on the king's face.
Recently there was one of these sold in Heritage and "supposedly" in MS61 (as you can understand by my "" I dont agree with the MS classification). Nevertheless, its a great coin, with "P" mintmark and was sold for 734 USD.
Nice coin, I agree with you about third party slabbing. I have a lot of Medieval material from European auctions....in most cases coins are graded CH EF, yet were previously slabbed as MS-63/64/65!
I just don't trust TPG's to have the experience and know how to grade hammered coins correctly. I have seen several examples (Portuguese hammered coins) were the results are just simply all "over the field". I also think that the grading presented by most European auction houses is really really a lot more strict then the TPG's (and it's not just by one grade). And I do get a little bit concerned when I see a MS64 graded coin pop up as AU by the auction house. It makes me think that my German State coins that are all PCGS graded will take a value hit if they were to be sold through a European auction house instead of... Heritage for example.
Sometimes even MS-65 slabbed coins, are graded by Kunker as Vorz. (EF) Here is my AV Salut d'or from English occupied France/ Henry VI/ Saint Lo Mint graded by Belgian (Gallery 51) as mint state/ Heritage probably would have it as MS-67 or better.
