I picked this up for less than $5, thinking it'd be a nice project to try and identify it. Unfortunately, after several hours of searching I've come to the conclusion that it's too far outside the areas I know anything about to get anywhere towards achieving that goal. On one side I see a horseman mounted left and carrying a lance, with an inscription above: ___ROS. On the other, I see what could be a man holding a club with another inscription running vertically (or maybe I'm looking at it wrong and it should be oriented differently) : ___MARIA. The general art style looks Celtic or Iberian, but I could be far off. Any ideas?
It's Norman, from Sicily, minted by Roger I (1072-1101). That's the Virgin Mary on the reverse holding a rather large infant Jesus.
Here's mine: Obv: ROGERVS COME +S; Roger, mounted left wearing Norman helm, holding kite shield and striped banner Rev: + MARIA MATER DNI (’N’ retrograde); Enthroned nimbate Virgin Mary holding on lap Christ child, nimbate and in swaddling clothes right It's a very cool coin, as one of the first Norman issues from Sicily! @FitzNigel has a great post on Norman coins here (including comments on this type): https://www.cointalk.com/threads/medieval-some-thoughts-on-the-normans-and-their-coins.297556/
While beat up, that’s still a steal at $5! The hole is interesting too... here’s my example: Norman Italy - Calabria Roger I, r. 1072-1101 (1098-1101) Mileto Mint, AE Trifollaro, 28.04 mm x 8.3 grams Obv.: ROG [ERVS] COME +S. Roger, mounted left wearing Norman helm, holding kite shield and striped banner Rev.: + MARIA [MATE]R DNI (’N’ retrograde). Enthroned nimbate Virgin Mary holding on lap Christ child, nimbate and in swaddling clothes right Ref.: NCKS 131var., De Wit 3789, MEC 14, 93
It's interesting to see Roger holding a Norman kite shield as one sees in the Bayeux Tapestry... Great example @Severus Alexander and nice find @SeptimusT
The horse design and the banner are the same too - the image you chose is an excellent example since it has all of these elements in it
The kudos for my ID aren't deserved... it's pretty easy if you have one yourself. Also, you can see I totally swiped my obv. and rev. descriptions from Fitz. I agree with him that this coin was a total steal! Well done, @SeptimusT.
