Here is a good one to start thread... Williem V (1350-89) "the insane" Comte de Hollande/ Count of Hainault/ Herzog Von Bayern AV Florin d'or ND struck De Hague Mint circa 1365 He was not all there at times, at one of his banquets, he struck a fellow knight with his boardsword. The offender had just said a crude joke, he lost his head. Coin won from Numismatika Genevensis SA
And he had his die engraver design the obverse of coin with him holding his sword, a warning to any drunken guest not to offend him
Here's the list of the wackiest Roman emperors! Nobody you wouldn't expect, though. Tiberius: Caligula: Nero: Commodus: Elagabalus:
Awesome coin, @panzerman! Nice to see some medieval coins from the low countries, they don’t come by that often here. This is truly one of the finest known for this type! That being said, the identification is slightly off. The mint in ‘s-Gravenhage (The Hague/Den Haag) would not open until early 1454 and would not commence the minting itself until the first of august that year. The last coin from this mint was struck only a year later on the fourth of August 1455, making them quite rare nowadays (only a handful have survived). Traditionally, all coins for the counts of Holland were struck in Dordrecht, but in 1451 the then count Philip the good took away the city’s privilege to mint coins. This was because Dordrecht sided with a political rival (Jacoba of Bayeren, whose great-uncle, Willem V, struck your coin) and angered the count. In 1456 however, the count and Dordrecht reconciled and when a new mint for Holland needed to be opened in 1466, Dordrecht was once again chosen. Your coin, struck around a century before this short movement to The Hague, was thus also struck in the Dordrecht mint. The date of 1365 however is also incorrect; this type, called an ‘old Dordtse gulden’ or ‘Wilhelmusgulden’, was introduced in the emission of 1378 and would be struck until 1388 in seven distinct emissions under at least four different moneyers. Based on the rendering of the ‘G’ in the obverse inscription, your coin can be attributed to emission A to E (1378-1385). These early emissions have a rather high intended gold content (0.927 to 0.871), as opposed to the 0.791 of the two later emissions. All in all, an awesome coin from indeed a wacky ruler!
WOW!!!!! Thanks so much for that historical perspective. I print up a new data label with your awesome updated corrections I love the coinage from the "Low Countries", esp. from Brabant/ Flanders/ Tournai/ Liege/ Hainault...... John
