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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 4966050, member: 110504&quot;]These are of Guy I, Count of Ponthieu 1053-1100.&nbsp; ....And, like that much of the period, from this corner of Europe (northeastern France, across the Low Countries to NW Germany) they’re the kind of coins that only a mother, or a collector who’s already too far gone, could love.&nbsp; ...If you’re that invested in the historical context, this is kind of what you get.</p><p>Guy (/Gui/ Gvido/ VVIDO) shows up on the Bayeux Tapestry, where Harold Godwinsson gets shipwrecked on his coast.&nbsp; Guy holds Harold for ransom; it takes Guy’s suzerain, Duke William of Normandy (only ‘The Bastard,’ so far) to bail him out.&nbsp; (...Later, at William’s court, Harold swears on sacred relics to acknowledge William’s succession to the English throne, setting the stage for William’s invasion, after Harold’s ensuing coronation.&nbsp; ...In this medium, the narrative is almost proto-cinematic.)</p><p><br /></p><p>‘Here Guy (VVIDO) Apprehends Harold.’&nbsp; (Harold has the moustache.)</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/64gZt-K7fpwlkMBe8yRBazUPSnDDFd539eZJudgu5jii0dG1uo6Zt3Whk587xXb6YS2Qtpl1z4UlbXzBdCdChme84A0sib-Zg8gE-Jubr_Wx3STnKgdcCqxW_930gn4LKGouxLSs" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>‘...Where Harold and Guy Confer [discussing Harold’s ransom].’</p><p><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cHfqULun1pJB2XvM19MbOkk4k8n4eoHJMFJMxhb1agOXBoPtfXubY-k3SkvUDUKr7X2dsu83-hhKPF6RwG59bwkNq15ag6YVOitJupcgRnpLR6k7yCjFFSYABUMxla8fSutMLo4" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Ponthieu was a small county just northeast of the duchy of Normandy, and, as mentioned, under its ducal suzereignty.&nbsp; ...More effectively so than usual for the period, particularly in comparison to contemporaneous Capetian monarchs.&nbsp; The Normans knew how this was done.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/cXjBFSHZMOp1WYE7WUOOdllaoZ7elpQdbSqZU447rsQdZ89HODNCFrl8kD7os1ly2lNvuWrug9j4h_Ud__cVyCrZDr7aIYtWBwjkB3OjiwmcQyDClB0hmGFMdQco4wiTyIJeY3jS" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>...Typically terrible coins ensue.&nbsp; ...Yes, I was getting to that.&nbsp; The legends are mostly retrograde (that is, Backward; we’re not in Julio-Claudian /Flavian Kansas anymore).</p><p><br /></p><p>From that point, you get further, effectively illiterate legend blundering, complemented by (expl.: ) &#039;how hungover <i>was</i> he?&#039; strikes.&nbsp; Net result being the numismatic equivalent of ‘mission creep.’</p><p>...The gestalt is less about the kind of dialogue you can get from the expansive and, can we just say, competent legends on, for instance, later Hellenistic or Roman coins.&nbsp; It’s along more starkly forensic lines: ‘what’s <i>here</i>?’ and, ‘what did they <i>mean</i>?’</p><p>Then you can add the paucity of current, responsible references for coins from this part of France.&nbsp; Now you’re looking at a perfect storm.&nbsp; With the sheer chaos of the (mostly illiterate) variants, published and not, it’s easy to sympathize with Duplessy’s hesitance (in his ongoing series, Monnaies Féodales) to get to the operant volume.&nbsp; Poey d’Avant, as of 1863, effectively acknowledges his own ignorance, in light of the profusion of examples and variants, as they were coming to light in real time (Monnaies Féodales, p. 387, note).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1193646[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1193647[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Gui, Comte de Ponthieu.&nbsp; Denier of Abbéville.</p><p>Obv. (from 1 o’clock: ) +VVIDO COMES.&nbsp; (‘Count Guy,’ rendered with the same double ‘V’ that you see on the Bayeux Tapestry.)</p><p>Rev. A frankly appalling rendering, ostensibly of the legend: +ABBATIS VILLA (Abbéville).&nbsp; With a central design, possibly riffing on the Robertian&nbsp; monogram of Odo (/Eudes), as king of Francia, c. early 10th century.</p><p>(This corresponds best to Poey 6696.&nbsp; Other variations are listed in Boudeau no. 1925; Caron 632 and pl. XXVI: 3; and Roberts 4381-3. But all Roberts does is parrot Caron and Poey, especially Poey’s no.s&nbsp; 6693-5.&nbsp; ...Nope, sticking with Poey this time.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1193649[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1193651[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This one has legends which are frankly retrograde on both sides, but as such, only clearer renditions of Poey’s version in the preceding example. As such, it’s only a less ambiguous match to Poey 6697.</p><p>...People here have been making whole threads, just recently, out of variously atrocious coins.&nbsp; Whether for wear, or strike, or crudity of the engraving.&nbsp; You would be cordially welcome to start from there.&nbsp; ...Maybe, or not, with medieval examples.&nbsp; (...If there are ancients as bad as this, um, I’d frankly enjoy the schadenfreude.&nbsp; ...You Were Warned!!!)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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