Hello everyone ! I got hold of these 2 unknown medieval silver coins, both of them have dates on them but I have no clue of what land or dynasty they belong to ! Can anyone help please !
These are silver dinars from Hungary.The ruler is Ferdinand I 1526-1564.Here a photo of one that is virtually uncirculated so you can read the inscriptions.FERDINAND D.G M VNG....etc..the reverse is a Madonna holding child and says VNGARIE PATRONA..(patron saint of Hungary). I hope this helps you.
You're welcome IC, It also looks like Ferdinand picked up a couple of new titles between the time my coin was struck and yours.They had to abbreviate his name to fit the new inscriptions.He became king of Hungary & Bohemia and later was Holy Roman Emperor,so I guess the titles kept accumulating.By the way,he was Spanish..go figure!
Spanish !! This is the thing that I dont understand in Europe's medieval history, so many family connections between so many states and earldoms and yet they fought bloody wars between each others which killed millions of people ! I guess their history is the history of all mankind, fighting for power and material gains....I wonder now, where are all those mighty kings and unbeatable empires !!! They are gone in the history's memory, the memory of our earth. I got more of such unknown coins, I shall clean them first and then post them for identification.
Yes, why clean them? It is very destructive. I cleaned some US silver coins dating as far back to the 1820s when I was 11 or 12 and now they are all shined up with wire scratches all over them and considerably worthless.
Hungary, Ferdinand I (1526-1564) Obverse 4-fold arms with eagle central shield, Latin letters in legend ending with date. Lettering: WLADISLAI·R·VNGARI· Reverse Madonna and child divide mintmarks, Latin letters in legend. Lettering: ·VNGARIE·PATRONA· I hope this helps you. Thomas.
One thing about those medieval European rulers-- one of the main reasons for their wars was to get rid of "excess population", especially uppity peasants who might revolt against their hereditary rulers if enough of them got together and realized just how bad off they had it.
