World Coins: Your Newest Acquisition!

A pair of prize medals from the 1867 Coventry and Midland Exhibition, by W.F. Taunton for Ottley, Birmingham, 70mm. The gilt version was presented to the Earl of Clarendon and is encased in a silver ring with glass lunettes.

 

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I managed to acquire another major world coins target - an 1840 East India Company rupee. Nothing earth-shaking, they minted close to a billion (!) of these, but it's a nice, attractively toned, mint-state specimen. I prefer the divided legend types.
Photos were tough through the plastic, but I'm happy enough with the results. Hope you enjoy!

BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1600-1874
AR Rupee (30.5mm, 11.66g, 1h)
Dated 1840. Bombay or Calcutta mint
Obverse: VICTORIA QUEEN, bust of Queen Victoria left
Reverse: EAST INDIA COMPANY around wreath containing ONE RUPEE in two lines, Arabic translation below; 1840 along bottom
References: Numista 24095
Mintage: 398,554,000
In PCGS encapsulation, graded MS 62
Attractively toned. The British East India Company was founded in 1600 and over time grew to become the largest and most powerful corporation in the world, empowered to acquire territories, mint its own coinage, conduct diplomacy, and wage war. The East India Company maintained its own standing army, which at one point numbered more than a quarter million troops – twice the size of the regular British Army. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757 the EIC extended its control over much of the Indian subcontinent as well as Hong Kong, which it maintained until the British Government assumed direct rule over India following the Indian Mutiny of 1857. In the following years, the East India Company rapidly declined, and the company that once accounted for half of the world’s trade was finally dissolved in 1874. The London Times offered this obituary of the EIC: “It accomplished a work such as in the whole history of the human race no other trading Company ever attempted, and such as none, surely, is likely to attempt in the years to come.”​

 

AU-50. 1776, 5 Kopeks, Russia-Siberia.


MS-66. 1924, 50 Sen, Japan. I really like the designs of Japanese coinage. This
particular coin is extremely lustrous.

 

That 50 sent is FLASHY!!!!

 

Modern silver 2000 Canada $5 toner
Paid $30 US .999
Edit: .9999

 

Austro-Hungarian Gold 10 Crown of Franz Joseph I (minted in Kremnica in 1912):





The above is not a new acquisition, rather the first historical coin I ever bought as an adult, but since the original pictures aren't online anymore, I have taken pictures of it.

 

Umayyad Gold Dinar of al-Walid I (minted in Damascus sometime between 705 and 715)::



This isn't a new coin, rather the second historical coin I bought as an adult.

 

I splurged on this beauty last week after having been on my bucket list for about 35 years. I think I got a pretty good deal on it, but it's still the third most expensive coin in my collection. No regrets though!



Louis Napoléon, Kingdom of Holland, 50 stuivers 1808. 37 millimeters, 26.41 grams, .912 silver.

This is the only silver coin of Louis Napoleon that actually circulated, despite many pattern coins of multiple denominations being made. Aside from 300 test strikes dated 1807, this is a one-year type. However, some 700,000 of the 2.5 million made were actually minted in 1810, using 1808 dies.

The history of the Kingdom of Holland is pretty interesting. Created in 1806 as a puppet kingdom by Napoleon to strengthen his control over the Netherlands, he put his younger brother Louis on the throne to serve his interests. However, Louis often put the interests of his new subjects above those of the French empire and frequently clashed with his brother over issues such as conscription and the enforcement of the continental system.
His reign saw the transformation of the Netherlands from a federal republic to a centralized state. Among other things, he strongly promoted the emancipation of religious minorities and created the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. When disasters struck the nation, such as the Leiden gunpowder explosion of 1807, Louis showed up in person and helped with relief efforts, winning the hearts of many of his subjects. He even attempted to learn Dutch.
In 1810, his reign came to an end as Napoleon, fed up with his shenanigans, recalled Louis to Paris and annexed the Netherlands as a province of France, which it remained until the liberation in 1813. This was not the end of the legacy of Louis however, as his son Charles-Louis Napoléon would become emperor Napoleon III of France in 1852.

 

"Religious Stability" by J. Kirk, BHM 197, 41mm.



This medal may refer to the defeat in the House of Lords of a bill for the relief of Protestant dissenters (Brown).

 

Eastern Gangas Gold Fanam of Bhanudeva IV (minted circa 1419):

 

I have always liked this type. Finally picked one up this week at just over melt.



INDIA. Kushano-Sasanian Empire. Vasudeva I (ca. AD 190-230). AV dinar (19mm, 7.99 gm, 12h). AU. Bactria, early series imitative issues in the name of Vasudeva I, ÞAONONOÞAO BAOZΔHO KOÞANO (blundered), Vasudeva I standing facing, nimbate head left, wearing diadem with ribbons to right, jeweled triangular helmet with forehead crescent, clad in full armor with long-sleeved knee-length tunic, coils covering arms, top as chain mail, shirt of plate mail, worn over trousers and high boots, long sword on hip projecting right, sacrificing with right hand over altar at left, grounded trident in left hand; filleted trident to left, nandipada to right / OhÞO, Ithyphallic Siva standing facing with two arms and single head, hair in topknot with curls outlining face, wearing ankle-length dhoti with symmetrical folds, erect lingam, diadem in right hand, trident with annulet on bent shaft in left; the bull Nandi standing left in background, tamgha to upper left, three pellets below bull's head, dotted border. ANS Kushan 1689 var. (pellet behind bull).

Vasudeva I, reigning from the 190s-230s AD, oversaw the later part of the Golden Age of the Kushan Empire. The iconography of his coinage was starkly Shivan, in a break from the pervasive Iranic syncretism of previous Kushan coins. Vasudeva I was the last Kushan ruler to be recorded by Chinese sources, implying that the subsequent Sasanian invasion of Central Asia would rob the Kushana of their geopolitical significance. The Vasudevan dinars were probably the basis for early imitative gold issues of the Kushano-Sasanians and later Hunnic tribes.

 

Kingdom of England Silver Penny of William I the Conqueror (minted in Bath by the moneyer Osmaer sometime between 1083 and 1087):

 

Mexican Empire Gold 20 Pesos of Maximilian I (minted in Mexico City in 1866):