Anyone care for a little puzzle? (European medieval lot)

This small and unassuming lot belongs to a French collection and was offered recently on Ebay.

Anyone care to guess why is this an interesting lot?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Did you find them on Oak Island?

Chris

 

No. They were not used by the colonists of Roanoke either

 

They're all medieval! My real answer is that it's all crusades related? The Richard I is the only one I can somewhat identify.

 

Not really. The Richard Plantagenet denier of Aquitaine is not particularly rare.

 

I've seen some of the text. Linked to Jerusalem ?

 

No, they are all coins minted in Western Europe.

 

I think i see a Hugh of Rodez and a John of Brittany on he right. No idea what your specific interest point here might be though.

 

Yes, now we have 3 of the coins pinned. They are not the focus point here though.
The interest is about rarity and historical context and there is only one coin left to be inquired.

 

This is a really interesting puzzle Seth. Im not very familiar with French fuedal coins and cant begin to think of an answer. That said I look forward to what it is.

 

So the interesting one is on the bottom left, right? I think I can read a form of "William" on the obverse. It looks French/Carolingian. A rare coin of William Longsword of Normandy? Though it resembles something of one of the counts of Lyon more, except I can't make sense of the mint name.

Am I way off?

 

It's not Carolingian nor Robertine, in fact it's much later and it was minted in a realm associated usually with the Holy Roman Empire rather than the French crown, for a count stemming from one of the oldest German dynasties still in existence today.

 

May I divert, and ask people how I can link up with a page showing a US coin, with the year 1854 ? Shown today, but it is elusive.

 

LOL, in other words, yes, I was way off! Hohenzollern? That would be cool...

 

Great puzzle! Those unassuming Hohenzollern counts took on very assuming clothes in more recent days.

 

It's not a Hohenzollern either.
I'll give it another day or so, maybe it would gather attention from more users with interest in medieval numismatics.

 

Could it be that the four coins illustrate the debasement and decline of the denier, from a coin of good silver to one of almost none?

 

What I read on the coin is something like Guilelmus and Moneta. Not much informaton there. But a German dynasty still in existence today, if you mean reigning, it must be Nassau - the house of Orange-Nassau is still reigning in the Netherlands.

 

It's not a ruling dynasty anymore, but one still in existence, whose head today is titular King of a state in the former HRE (a state that today is part of the Bundesrepublik).
This dynasty has also a very interesting anti-Nazi history, its present head having even spent a year or so in the concentration camps of Dachau and Oranienburg.
He is also related to the Stuarts (heir of Stuart titles) and to the first modern King of Greece.

 

All of them were struck in billon of different titles. The earlier ones from the 12th century - the Richard and Hugo II of Rodez are probably minted from a better alloy than the other 2, which were minted in the 14th century (another clue!).