Hey guys, Long time, no CoinTalk. Near the bottom of my trunk that's taken almost a year, grabbed this. Can someone please help identify what it might be? I can grab more pictures later this week when I get back home. Any help is appreciated.
Howdy. Neat piece. It's from the Netherlands, since that's the knight on their gold ducat coinage, but I don't recognize this smaller piece without legends and the strange but neat-looking border. Perhaps @coin_nut or @GDJMSP will have some idea? Where's the reverse picture, and what's going on with the weird squiggles in that picture? I removed the duplicate thread and left this one up, since it had the picture, and the same text. (The other had not received any replies when I deleted it.) Nice toning on that, whatever it is.
Thanks for your reply Lord Marco van. I will get better pictures of the reverse and all angles. The weird scribbles I took the picture on my other phone prior to leaving home. That's phone does not have internet access, I simply use it for my magnifying lens and my kids play with it as well for a game phone. So I took a picture from my phone of that picture. Let me get more detailed pictures as I usually post, or as I have always tried to post on like this cracked phone shot that I posted. I was just too impatient to hold off and wanted to post it. It's quite a heavy piece, an odd piece compared to all the rest of mine. Again when I return, I will provide better pictures so this will enable you guys to possibly identify it better. Thank you for your response again and your input oh, and I cannot wait to provide more pictures, I will weigh it, and provide pictures of the reverse as well along with close-ups of my phone loupe. I hope you have a wonderful day, thank you again for your time sir. Respectfully, Hagen Homestead
Hi Hagenhomestead, I remember seeing this lovely piece earlier around the turn of the century. It was described as a button from the Netherlands army dresses. Reverse pics would be appreciated to determine it's purpose, cause I'm not sure at all after this long time.
Given what ya said I did a very brief search and found several other Netherlands military buttons with designs similar to that used for other Netherlands coins, but not that specific one. So, sounds like a reasonable explanation/description to me as it's definitely not a coin.
I did wonder if it was a button, which was the main reason I wanted to see the reverse. Now I wonder if it's gold or just gilt, but either way, it's pretty cool, and must have been a pretty high-status button if that's what it is. (An officer's button, perhaps?) I suppose that if it is a button, it might post-date the "1749" date, but maybe not by much, if so. The style does look consistent with the mid-18th century.
Perhaps an important date for the Dutch East India Company similar to the 1776 date for the USA? My guess is a gilt button for an officer's regimental dress uniform.
The Dutch Ducat was one of Europe's most appreciated gold coins. It was minted from the late sixteenth century up to the present day. Because it was liked so much, many states copied it. The button (which I assume it is) , looks like the coin, but the figure of the knight holding a bunch of arrows, is much smaller than on the original. 1749 is not a special year in Dutch history and the button is certainly not military.
In 1749 the "Admiraal de Ruyter", a ship of the United Eastindia company was built und put into service. Maybe this button was a part of a sailor or clothing officer.
Hi Hagenhomestead , that's a coin weight with a design of the Netherlands ducat, but it's definitely not made of gold. A coin should always have a legend around. Coins weights of ducats usually were made of brass or copper. I saw some 200+ of them, and most of designs were a knight (like on yours), 1 D (one ducat) or simply DUCAT word.
Respectfully disagree Maybe 1749 is not a key date in a Dutch history, but in the Holland coinage it is. You should have to look at the third side of a coin. 1749 was a very special year for Netherlands ducats in the Holland province. First, a type with no reeded edge (as in previous years) was minted. Subsequently a reeded edge, means grooved cuts on the coin edge, was introduced in a minting process to protect coins from shaving them. To mark new type ducats a rosette mark was punched between the knight’s legs. The same year the States General banned gold ducats minted without a reeded edge from circulation. Your coin is the first year of minting gold ducats with a reeded edge.
Just found an example of a coin weight with a similar design. https://katzauction.com/lots/view/1-2FMZJ0/netherlands-weight-measure-for-1-ducat-1749-nd You may see more details on this specimen.