In Europe, copper coins were made and used by the ancient Romans but not really in the Middle Ages. Local trade was not so much money based, bartering was more common there. As far as I know, copper was used for coins again in the 17th century - very roughly, not sure about the timing. When and where "low value" silver coins were used in (again roughly) the 12th to 14th century, they were mostly bracteates. Very thin, designed on one side only - and they did not necessarily have a long life for other reasons too: The rulers would, more or less regularly, declare old pieces invalid (renovatio monetae). You could turn them in and get - fewer - new ones instead, thus paying a kind of tax ... Christian
I believe this piece to be a discovery piece. It does not match up with any of the pieces described in Bob Levinson's book. I will send Bob the image and see what he says.
Wow, I remain very impressed as you continue sharing the photos of your collection. Must have bee a lot of fun and happy hours putting this collection together.
@Robidoux Pass Thank you for the kind words. It is a lot of fun working on this collection. It would be much more fun if I had a BIGGER budget. My budget limits me in my choices. I guess I'll just have to live with that. I have approximately 220 different pieces in my collection. When I hit 300 then I will really slow down. At that point either finances or extreme rarity ( 1-2 known) will really slow me down. Many of the extreme rarities are either in museums or Bob Levinson's collection.
I'll post a few more coins tomorrow. For a larger look at my overall collection here is a link https://www.cointalk.com/threads/pr...utm_campaign=Feed:+cointalk+(CoinTalk+Update) I hope you enjoy that as well.
This Half Schwertgroschen was minted in either Zwickau or Schneeberg, per Levinson. This is from the Cervin collection.
There are two varieties for this coin. A forward facing "2" and a backward facing "2". This is the forward facing one.
This coin comes in two styles, one where the "2" is rounded as here. The other where the "2" looks like a "Z". Over the years I've bid on a "Z" but have lost it each time.
Maybe the minter decided that the leading 1 is obvious. I have seen Mariengroschen coins from Detmold in an auction catalog, both dated 1605. One says "1605", another one "605" ... Christian