This 13th century ruler and his coinage are about a millennium out of synch with reality. Dude's titulature even calls him "CESAR AVG":
Yeah, compared to most medieval coins of the era, this one is a true masterpiece. Definitely captured the style and the quality of coinage from 1,000 years earlier.
Quite a few ancient collections have included that type in them. I personally am not planning on adding it but it's a beautiful type.
It would be interesting to know what ancient coins they dug up to use as a model for this. I don't recognize the "type" right off the bat.
I'm sure by this time period, with the crusades and everything, they would have been exposed to Eastern tets, plus I'm sure a few Eastern tets made their way to Italy in antiquity only to be found later . Then loosely copy the legends of a Denarius and presto....modern ancient coin (medieval anyways)
I always find it fascinating when a civilization digs up a long-obsolete coin and decides to base their circulating coinage on it. No danger of me owning one of those in the near future, but I have been tempted more than a few times to collect the Zangid and Artuqid bronzes that copy Roman and even Seleucid coins. Another interesting example are the Kashmiri bronze "staters" which copy an obsolete (by ~300 years) Hunnic coin of Toramana II, which in turn is based on the gold staters of the Kushans.
Here's an even later denarius that I got recently. Hand struck, and even says "DEN." on it. (It's actually more like a quinarius in size, though.)
Frederic II or for that matter any Holy Roman Emperor did not base their coinage on "dug" Roman coins but on a tradition that Charlemagne started when he got himself crowned as Emperor at Rome in 800. This coinage is also a nod to Charlemagne, which was at that time a nod to the Constantinian era.
Ha, I was eyeing this up just a couple of days ago actually. Absolutely beautiful type -- if I had the money I'd love to indulge in these kinds of pre-Renaissance echoes of the Roman aesthetic. The style and competence of these seems to vary somewhat (per Google) but the one in the OP is superb I think. I definitely see something of Domitian and emperors of that era in the mouth and chin: (from Wildwinds) The bust is more Carolingian in feeling, perhaps. (Wikipedia)
I would love one of these coins at some point (and like @Sallent, the type sure seems modeled off of some drachm design. I have been looking for designs that may have been the model but have not been able to find any definative “copy”). My sole Frederick II - highlighting his love of birds: Kingdom of Sicily Frederick II, r. 1197-1250 (1243) Brindisi Mint, BL Denari, 18.64 mm x .07 grams; Obv.: +F●ROM●IPR’●SeP●AVG. Bare head right. Rev.: +R●IERSL’●ET SICIL’. Eagle facing with head r. Ref.: MEC 14.555-7