Featured Common Medieval Coins: Info Thread

@chrsmat71 : Another nice Friesach pfennig, and,if I see correctly, also a not-so-common variety!

Yes, you do. Here is the plate coin from CNA:

Eberhard II, Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, Friesach pfennig, 1200–1246 AD, Friesach mint. Obv: Illegible legend (likely EBERHARDS EPS or similar), bishop seated facing, holding crosier in his l. hand and ferula in his r. hand. Rev: Bust of Bishop facing, between two crosses, saltire above. Ref: CNA I, C a 20 A.

...and I'll gladly take the blame. Happy you enjoyed the write-ups!

 

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If you wanted to collect coins of medieval France, you would also need to add Hungarian coins. Robert d'Anjou (1275-1343) was king of Hungary. He was also the King of Naples. The lands of Louis d'Anjou (1339-1383) are below.


From the Broadway musical Kismet comes the line, "Princes come, princes go, an hour of pomp and show..." When you consider the "Middle Ages" - say 800 to 1500 - that is a lot of lifetimes in a rich and complex cultural matrix dominated by families. We too easily speak of "the House of Habsburg" without letting that sink it: lands crossing what we consider modern nations were within the same household, no less than your car is today, no matter where you park it.


Poland, Lithuania, Hungary... we give them modern names, but over centuries, who ruled what came and went with powerful families, tragic battles, accidental death by disease and purposeful death by assassination. Marriages changed borders.



Over the entire span of the Middle Ages several hundred, perhaps a full thousand, of local authorities struck coins. Above, in the little corner of the world called "Swabia," are Ulm, Stuttgart, Augsburg, Zurich, and Geneva, among others.



Even in an age of princes and dukes, Italian cities were republics in which some people chose others to hold civic office. Genoa was the home of the man we call Christopher Columbus. In Venice, they had schools of arithmetic to teach long division with Arabic numerals so that merchants could keep track of profits and losses. We think of "Italy" as a nation. To them, it was just a peninsula. On the island of Sicily there were Vikings. The coins of the German emperor Frederick II of Sicily (1197-1250) are highly-prized works of art. So, if you wanted to collect "coins of medieval Germany" you would have take a broader view than we accept today.

Classical Numismatic Group - Triton XXII, Lot 1304 USD 5000.


Silver penny of Frederick II Aegean Numismatics on VCOINS USD 30.

 

Thanks! CoinTalk is a great repository of accumulated information presented nicely.

 

Hi Karpathy,

Charles Robert d'Anjou, King of Hungary and Robert d'Anjou, King of Naples were two different Angevins. Charles Robert was the grandson of Mary Arpad and Charles II d'Anjou while Robert d'Anjou "the Wise King" of Naples was one of the sons of the pair, thus uncle to Charles Robert of Hungary.

 

Ah... Thanks, Seth77. I have a 2x2 to correct.

 

Reading Medieval Coins by Ralph S. Walker, Attic Books, 1979, 40 pp.
I found this little book to be very helpful. Medievals are not a special interest for me, but I do own some and I do write about them. So, this has been a good guide to deciphering the often unusual and occasionally peculiar lettering on coins from the European Middle Ages.

This book presents explanations and examples of lettering styles, abbreviations, monograms, and word separators. The book goes a bit into the grammar of medieval Latin as it relates to coin inscriptions. In the closing 6-1/2 pages, it also touches on some other languages: Slavonic, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew (again in relation to these coins), as well as some examples of vernacular German. It is just an introduction but it helps.


The Appendix offers lists of Place Names (EPERWIC = York), Personal Names, Titles, common words and phrases, and religious legends.

I bought my copy from Allen G. Berman (www.bermania.com) probably 20 years ago, and he still has it for sale for $12.50. You can find it on Amazon and other places, also. It has been extensively reprinted.

 

What: “Otto-Adelheid-Penny,” “Otto-Adelheid-Pfennig,” OAP

Who, where, and when: First minted after 984 by the dowager empress Adelheid of Burgundy, who was acting as regent for her underage son, the Holy Roman emperor Otto III. It is debated whether the exact start date was shortly after 984, when the regency of the empresses started, or 991, when Otto III’s mother Theophanu died and Adelheid subsequently became the sole regent. Probably, the main mint of the Otto-Adelheid-Pennies was at Goslar in Lower Saxony, today in Germany. The type was immobilized and continued to be minted until ca. 1040. Different local imitations exist and are often hard to distinguish from “official” coins.

Design: The obverse of the more common Otto-Adelheid-Pennies shows a cross with the letters O-D-D-O (Dannenberg 1167) or O-T-T-O (Dannenberg 1166, 1170) in the quadrants, referring to Otto III. The legend reads + DI GRA REX (for Dei Gratia Rex, “King by God’s Grace”) or + DI GRA REX AMEN, often interspersed with strokes to mark the abbreviations. Countless small legend variants exist.

The reverse depicts a “wooden church” (Holzkirche), a stylized representation of a church building derived from the temple motif found on the reverse of a number of Carolingian coins. The legend ATEAHLHT, which exists in a number of different spelling variants, names the regent Adelheid of Burgundy. To the left, right, and in the center of the church, different simple control marks can be found (pellets, strokes, crescents, etc.).


Hatz IV, 5g; Dannenberg 1167; image source here.

Much rarer than these normal Otto-Adelheid-Pennies is a group of coins that shows a head instead of the church building:


Hatz I; Dannenberg 1164, image source here

The German scholar and numismatist Vera Hatz, née Jammer, has grouped the Otto-Adelheid-Pennies into six large groups (see Hatz 1961). There is a lot of uncertainty about the chronology of the different groups:

Group I: Obv: OTTO REX ADELHEIDA; head l. Rev: DI GRA REX; cross with ODDO. (Dannenberg 1164)
Group II: Obv: DI GRA REX (AMEN); cross with OTTO. Rev: ATEALHET; wooden church with or without control marks. (Dannenberg 1166 and 1170)
Group III: Obv: DI GRA REX; cross with ODDO. Rev: ATEALHET; wooden church without control mark. (Dannenberg 1167)
Group IV: Obv: DI GRA REX; cross with ODDO. Rev: ATEALHET; wooden church with control mark. (Dannenberg 1167)
Groups V and VI: different blundered versions of III and IV, often considered contemporary imitations. (Dannenberg 1173, 1174, 1175 etc.)

A typical Otto-Adelheid-Penny should weigh about 1.20g and measure about 17 to 19mm in diameter. Half-pennies exist but are rare.


Otto III with Adelheid of Burgundy as regent (or immobilized under his successors), Holy Roman Empire, "Otto-Adelheid-Penny," 983/991– ca. 1050, probably Goslar mint. Obv: [+D]'I GR'A + R[EX], cross with OD[D]O in quadrangles. Rev: [A]TEAH[LHT]; "wooden church," pellet to right. 19mm, 1.39g. Hatz IV 5/6.

Often, the coins are a bit wavy, likely due to having been bent to test the quality of the silver. It is not unusual to see a slightly raised edge on Otto-Adelheid-Pennies: gently hammering up a coin’s edge appears to have been a common test of silver purity in the earlier Middle Ages: debased metal would have been too brittle for this. With some contemporary coin types, e.g. the so-called “Saxon Pennies” (Sachsenpfennige), the raised edge even is a regular feature of the coin’s design.

Background: As the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey records, the German emperor Otto I between 961 and 968 AD “opened up silver mines in Saxon lands” (Deeds of the Saxons, III,63).This crucial discovery came at a time when the circulation of coins in Europe had strongly declined during the ‘dark centuries’ and most trade transactions relied on barter. Furthermore, large-scale silver mining in Europe had ceased, and fresh bullion was mostly obtained only by trading with the Arab world. A new source of silver was direly needed, and in the decades to come, the silver mines at the Rammelsberg near Goslar fueled the monetization and revitalization of different European economic systems: “One might almost think of this century as witnessing the real start of a money economy in western Europe” (Spufford 1989, p. 77, detailed discussion on pp. 74–105).


16th century panorama map of Goslar, Rammelsberg with mines in the background.

No coin illustrates this as well as the Otto-Adelheid-Penny. Struck probably a Goslar from silver mined in the surrounding Harz region, these small silver coins soon became a major trade currency. To quote Bernd Kluge: “Never have German coins played such a dominant role in Europe as in the time period between the last quarter of the 10th to the first quarter of the 12th century. Hundreds of thousands of coins travelled to the Scandinavian north and the Slavic east, where they have been treasured up and buried in hoards. The main reason for this ‘coin export’ was the fully evolved long-distance trade. It was controlled by Scandinavian and Slavic merchants, who accepted coined silver as payment for the goods they brought to the German markets” (Kluge 2005, p. 94, my translation). More than 250.000 medieval German coins have been found and recorded in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Baltic region, an estimated 20–25% of these are Otto-Adelheid-Pennies. Yet, Saxon silver also travelled to the west. Peter Spufford, for example, has argued that most 11th century English coinage was struck from imported Saxon silver that was melted down and reminted (Spufford 1988, p. 87). If you own any late Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman coins, you probably have a former Otto-Adelheid-Penny in your collection.


Map from Spufford 1988, p. 77.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Otto-Adelheid-Pennies have been the subject of a polemic debate between the numismatists Hermann Dannenberg and Julius Menadier. While the former argued them to be issued by Adelheid of Burgundy as regent for Otto III, the latter interpreted these coins to be struck for Otto I “the Great”, who was married to Adelheid from 951 until his death in 973. Thanks to the work of Vera Hatz, who evaluated the data from a large number of hoard finds, Dannenberg’s thesis is widely accepted today. Hatz could not find any Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige in hoards dating earlier than Otto III’s reign, which indicates that these coins were indeed struck by Adelheid as regent (see Jammer 1952, pp. 61–64).

This also makes the Otto-Adelheid-Penny the first and most important medieval coin struck under the authority of a female ruler. When emperor Otto II died young in December 983, his wife, the Byzantine princess Theophanu, and his mother Adelheid took over until his and Theophanu’s son, Otto III, came of age in 994. The two dowager empresses proved to be capable and successful rulers: “we have no record of significant complaints or restiveness from the nobles of the reich during Theophanu’s and Adelheid’s regencies. Nobles continued to bring their troops for frontier duty when commanded, continued to frequent the court, and apparently did not take advantage of a period of weak leadership to indulge in private wars with each other. And there were no revolts in the period 984–94, one of the longest periods without rebellion in the history of the Ottonians. In short, when put to the test both Adelheid and Theophanu had the necessary capital – influence, loyal servants, and sacred charisma – both to preserve the reich Otto II had left them and to strengthen it so that when Otto III came of age he could peacefully assume power” (Jestice 2018, p. 255). The flourishing silver economy, which is reflected in the enormous amount of Otto-Adelheid-Pennies and the creation of a large number of new mints, played an important role for the success of their reign.

Literature:
Hermann Dannenberg: Die deutschen Münzen der sächsischen und fränkischen Kaiserzeit, Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung 1876. A somewhat dated but still usable catalogue. Can be freely downloaded here (text) and here (plates), and is usable without or with only minimal numismatic German. The Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige are no. 1166–1175.

Vera Hatz: Zur Frage der Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige. Versuch einer Systematisierung auf Grund des schwedischen Fundmaterials. In: Commentationes de nummis saeculorum IX-XI in Suecia repertis, vol. 1 (1961), pp. 105–144. This is the most complete and systematic catalogue of Otto-Adelheid-Pennies available. Unfortunately, it is incredibly hard to get. In German.

Vera Jammer: Die Anfänge der Münzprägung im Herzogtum Sachsen (10. und 11. Jahrhundert), Hamburg: Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, Abt. Münzkabinett 1952 (Numismatische Studien 3/4), especially p. 61–64.

Phyllis G. Jestice: Imperial Ladies of the Ottonian Dynasty. Women and Rule in Tenth-Century Germany, Palgrave-Macmillan 2018. A very readable and well-researched monograph on the regencies of Adelheid and Theophanu.

Bernd Kluge: ATHALHET, ATEAHLHT und ADELDEIDA. Das Rätsel der Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige. In: Franz Staab, Thorsten Unger (ed.): Kaiserin Adelheid und ihre Klostergründung in Selz, Speyer: Verlag der Pfälzischen Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften 2005, pp. 91–114. An important article which summarizes and evaluates most earlier research on the Otto-Adelheid-Pennies.

Peter Spufford: Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe, Cambridge: University Press 1988. If you are interested in medieval economic history and coinage, this book lies at the fundament of your reading list. See @FitzNigel ’s review here. Chapter 4 deals with the role of Saxon silver and the expansion of minting in 10th and 11th centuries.

Price: Prices between ca. $40 for somewhat weak examples to ca. $120 for attractive coins are normal. Rare varieties, especially Hatz I, and unusually attractive examples can be more expensive.

 

I recommend the book Reading Medieval European Coins by Ralph S. Walker. While the book isn't very thick (it's around 40 pages), it gives a great beginners introduction to Medieval coins.

 

I do not know the other references, but I did rely on this one myself for other research. How money was used in the Middle Ages speaks to many issues in our time. Medieval Europe was a complex political fabric, at once localized and international. Bars of silver, a plethora of coinages, and bank drafts written for what we must regard as "virtual" money all carried commerce.

 

Brilliant writeup, @Orielensis, along with some stunning coins. I was completely unfamiliar with the portrait type. Your fusion of numismatic, political and economic history is inspired --and inspiring!

 

@Justin Lee, Cool coins, and a good place to branch out. Iberian coins are relatively neglected --except for the rarities, which go more or less as high as anywhere else. Hope this is old news, but anyway, it's Good: Vol. 6 of MEC is cheaper than any other volume I've seen (...and the only one I have).
--Except, Oops, they're going up: https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Eur...erian+peninsula&qid=1600635231&s=books&sr=1-1
Hope that by now, this is redundant....

 

The paperbacks are reasonable. The images aren’t as good, but I find they are serviceable. I’ve managed to snag all of the paperback MECs except volume 1

 

I'll add to these with a few more from Iberia/Spain:


Kingdom of Castile & Leon
Ferdinand II of Aragon (el Católico; the Catholic) & Isabella of Castile, ruled 1474-1504 AD
BL Blanca, Cuenca mint, 1474-1504 AD
Obverse: + FERNANDVS • ET • ELIS, crowned calligraphic F monogram of Ferdinand II; C beneath, leafs to left and right.
Reverse: + DE GRA • REX • ET • REG • HISP, crowned calligraphic J (to left and right) monogram; J’s terminate in leafs, P beneath.
References: Calico 589
Size: 18.1mm, 0.85g
cf: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2761808


Kingdom of Castile & Leon
Ferdinand II of Aragon (el Católico; the Catholic) & Isabella of Castile, ruled 1474-1504 AD
BL Blanca, Cuenca mint, 1474-1504 AD
Obverse: + FERNANDVS • ET • ELIS, crowned calligraphic F monogram of Ferdinand II; C in left field, O/P in right field, single star below, diamond-quatrefoils to left and right.
Reverse: + DE GRA • REX • ET • REG • HISP, crowned calligraphic J (to left and right) monogram; J’s terminate in diamond-quatrefoils, three stars, one each to left, right and beneath.
References: Calico type 207, 446 var. (mint mark)
cf: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5264557
https://agoraauctions.com/listing/viewdetail/44595


Kingdom of Castile & Leon
Philip III (Felipe III) of Spain,
Ruled 1598 – 1621 AD, AE 8 Maravedis, Segovia mint, 1607 AD
Obverse: PHILIPPVS·III·D·G, Crowned shield with three towered Castle, acueduct (4 arcs and 2 levels) at left and VIII at right all within a circle.
Reverse: HISPANIARVM·REX, Crowned shield with Lion, (date, 1607) at right within a circle.
References: Cayon 4359, Calico 762
Size: 28mm, 5.58g

 

@Justin Lee, those are very cool.
Beyond my purview, but very cool.
Truth is, somewhere I have a little copper of Philip IV, with his profile. Bought for the moustache, memorable for his portraits by Velasquez. (Who, in turn, belongs in the company of Rembrandt and Vermeer --as in, Just Too Good Not to have anticipated elements of Impressionism.)

 

I always like to know what the legends on coins mean. For medieval coins I found this reference, which I used for deciphering the legends.

Probably many of you know it already... just sharing:

https://archive.org/details/erklaerungderab00schlgoog

 

@cmezner, thank you for the link! I for one had no idea of it, or that it was available on the Internet Archive. You have done a valuable public service!!!

 

Thanks! I am sorry that I did not see this earlier when I was searching here for information about the Medieval Hand Heller. I just completed a post about them on my own blog here.
https://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2020/12/heller-coins-of-medieval-hall-in-swabia.html
I created a thread, but did not get many replies.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/attributing-hall-häller-heller.370410/#post-5143475
So, I just gathered what information I could with the libraries closed.

 

Great writeup kaparthy. I have also been interested in these lately, I am working to reconstruct these as they were struck in the period. Please feel free to PM me if you want to swap research!