medieval coins

can anyone here recommend a good (commonly or semi-commonly found) resource on medieval coins?

I am thinking I want to branch out in these directions... In fact, the more coins the GDJMSP posts... the more I think I want HIS collection - and now I am considering liquidating my US to gather upstart funds for this project.

 

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Rick,

I could not agree with you more. GD has the most beautiful coins. I have had the priviledge of seeing several of his coins. I truely wish more collectors would realize the effort and take the time to collect coins in the manner that GD does.
He knows how to grade, but beyond that, cherry picks with the best of them.
When you see his coins, it is easy to spot his love for these little discs of metal.

 

Rick,

I can't personally recommend a dealer, but if you do a google search for "medieval coins" (without quotes), you will find lots of dealers as well as lots of info on the subject.

Good luck!

 

Any particular country of interest?

Any particular part of the medieval period? (Varies per country but generally what i'd call the three periods)

Early c.700-1199
Mid c.1200-1350
Late c.1350-1499

Some countries were still medieval in the early 1600s. Others had entered the Renaissance prior to the 1490s.

All depends what kinda designs you're after really.

GD could show you coins from all over the place. My own personal medieval interests are purely English. (Here's some cheaper silver pennies);


Class 5H Long cross penny of Henry III (1216-1272) struck probably in the 1250-1270 period. Total cost of this was about $40. WILLELM ON CANTE (Canterbury)




King John (1199-1216) Class 6A London Mint penny. RAVF ON LVND. This cost me about $140.




Below is perhaps one of the easiest denominations to get hold of, an Edward I (1272-1307) penny this is a nice portrait on a class 2B Bristol mint issue. Issued in about 1280 i think. I got this one down to an exact year. This would set you back about $50/55.

http://www.omnicoin.com/coin_view.aspx?id=894780


I got a whole load more littered around, at least two more Edward I pennies.

 

those are beautiful examples sylvester. I don't know that I have picked a particular area of interest quite yet. Like my collections of foreign, it will most likely end up being all over the board, and whatever catches my eye as something I want to have.

At this weekend's coin show in Topeka, I purchased a coin showing Robert d'Anjou (1309-43) from Napels. It wasn't significantly expensive, but when I saw the piece and put it into my collection - well, I said 'I gotta have more like these'.

I will get a scan up as soon as I get one made - but I really like it.

 

Be careful hammered coins are addictive...

In theory i don't actually collect them i really collect sixpences. But every time i look at a website/coinlist or go into a coin shop i'm straight into the hammered section before i've even realised it. It took me totally by surprise.

 

There is a lot of truth in that sir. During the Palm Beach show, I was fortunately exposed to an early hammered gold coin. Instead of buying the coin right on the spot (like I should have) I allowed this piece to escape me.
Now in my quest to learn about these ancients, I find myself looking for the early hammered coins first. As no two can be exactly alike, this area of numismatics has a great deal of appeal to me.

 

Another thing i find fascinating about hammered issues is that to date them you have to know how to read the codes.

So some issues can be distingished by bifoliate crowns, others by trifoliate. Some have say 9 tressels others have 8, some have fleurs at the cusps others don't.

Annulet stops, lombardics m's and n's, reversed letters. All of which tell you which issue and what date.

It's kinda like solving a crime, a modern coin with a date slapped on it just totally lacks that interactive challenge.

 

Mediaeval coinage is an immense subject area. There isn't even a definite cut off line separating ancients from mediaval from `modern'.

Although I have more than a few mediaeval coins, I seemed to skip past that period and got stuck into `ancients' for a spell, then back up to the 15/1600's again. That time frame borders the mediaeval period in some parts of the wrold, is well out of it in others, and still well into it for others. One thing I do know...while having a few mediaeval coins might be quite enriching, it is nowhere near as enriching as knowing the story behind the coin. As i said earlier, the subject area is immense, and never has the saying `buy the book before you buy the coin' been more true.

My best advice to you would be to forget about buying or selling anything until you have got hold of a few books to see which coins / countries / regions take your interest the most THEN check out the markets for those coins (check going prices on ebay, dealers lists etcetera), only then should you decide on your collecting strategy.

Sure....it sounds right, doesn't it?....but we are all emotive creatures, ....and yes, I know that I don't stick to my own advice either at times....but that doesn't mean it isn't sound (especially for someone going into terra nova). ;-)

Seriously, get yourself some books from a library or a car boot sale or whatever and get as good an idea as you can of what is out there first. Worry about how to finance your new addiction once you know what it is that you intend feeding.

Ian

 

I haven't seen mediaeval spelt like that for a while. I used to spell it like that myself but my teachers marked me down for it saying it wasn't the correct form, because it was a later spelling derived from the continent and not the true English spelling.

So thus far i'm sticking with medieval whilst any marks depend upon it, but i fully intend to revert to my mediaeval variant before too long.

 

Admittedly i used to write it, mediæval.

 

Maybe your teachers knew something that my teachers didn't.

I've been using it that way (swimming against the tide of modernism and US influence on the english language, since I studied latin in the 60's)

I think that it is `medieval' that is the would be usurper, not the other way around. ;-)

Ian The Archaic.

 

OK...so would I if I knew how to get the conjoined a and e on my keyboard. What's the alt+ (?) code then....?

Ian The Resolute

 

alt + 145

I like you Ian thought that medieval was the usurper.


I'm a big fan of the æ, so i tend to go out of my way to include it in words where it should be. Like Encylopædia. Archæology, ærial photography, Æthelred II.

Infact nothing rattles me more than seeing people spell Æthelred as Ethelred... *shudder*

Oh by the way Æ is as the above but 146

 

Æ by gum lad! (as they might have said once upon a time in ye olde Yorkshire)

Brilliant! Thanks for that

 

I completely agree with you Ian. The gentleman that sold me the coin this weekend included a little page that he tucked into the back side of the flip, so I got to thinking that would be a neat addition to get into for my collection.

That was the primary reason for starting this thread - to see if any of you ancient collectors had any particular sources that you have found better than others (that can readily be found without traveling to some parallel universe and waging battle with unspoken evil... etc etc.)

 

Hey ! Watch who you are calling ancient! I'll have you know that in some circles i'm considered to be quite young actually! OK...granted, not that many circles...maybe one or two though.

;-)

Ian

 

Waging bttle with unspoken evil?

Hmmm give me an R, and a C please Carol and i think i'll have a erm... C?

 

The dealer you want to know first is Allen G. Berman. He has written or edited several books. He is a recognized expert on Papal coinage. He also advertises in The Celator that he will sell you common (but nice) medieval silver coins for $8 each -- when you buy a dozen he throws in a copy of Walker's book.

The first book you want is Reading Medieval European Coins by Ralph S. Walker and not surprisingly, Allen Berman is the publisher. The book lists new for under $10, usually only $6 or so. It is really a paperback booklet.

Once you get serious, you will want Price Guide to Medieval Coins in the Christian J. Thomsen Collection by Alex G. Malloy (again published by Allen G. Berman. Berman was one of several contributors as well.) To make use of the price guide, you need the catalog. Kristian Eerslev's Medieval Coins in the Christian J. Thomsen Collection, Attic Books, Ltd., South Salem, New York, 1992.

The Thomsen Collection was as close to "definitive" as it gets.

I have an new interest in the coins of the medieval fairs. I am now looking for several books, one, a set of three by Poey d'Avant, on Feudal French Coins.

The medieval period is long (800 AD to 1450 AD) and complicated. There were hundreds of independent states and coinage often was produced under contact. To deal with this, the bankers of Florence invented the "Pounds Shilling Pence" system which had not much to do with coins per se but was a way to aggregate them by weight regardless of where they came from. So, this to say, that if it was a welter of confusion for them in their own time, we have more problems getting a handle on it.

My suggestion is to pick a very specific time and place. Realize that "everyone" wants a silver penny from Richard the Lionhearted. So, you have to resign yourself to that. And, oh, yes, lest I forget:
"Æthelred was a mediæval king far from the Ægean Sea, or so the archæologists tell us."