From Stack's Auction: AV 6 Ducati 1776-BP/CC-C Fernando IV King of Naples and Sicily 1751-1825 PGGS MS-63
Interesting high grade gold coin. Just looked it up in my 18th Century Krause World Coins catalog. Italian States/Naples and Sicily. C#76 , Weight- 8.7980 or .2563 oz. with an interest gold content .906 gold. Thanks for sharing it.
I didn't know this was a Panzerman thread when I first opened it, so when I did, I found "nice coin from Naples and Sicily" to be a bit nicer than I had expected.
Beautiful coin. Wish it was in my collection . Do you collect coins from the "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" ? King Ferdinando IV was the son of King Charles III , who became the King of the mighty Spanish Empire. Those that collect Spanish coins know Charles III. As a young man Charles III was the king of Naples and Sicily.
He collects coins from the Kingdom of Mint State Gold That Most Mere Mortals Cannot Afford, that's his thing. And if one has deep enough pockets to collect rare Mint State gold, then why not? I certainly would if I could. But I can't. So I just get to ogle his stuff, like most of us. @panzerman and @AncientJoe have the two most jealousy-inducing collections on CoinTalk, in my humble opinion. There's one or two other folks on the Ancients forum with really jawdropping stuff.
Thank you Just got home from work ( I do lawn/ garden care, so work crazy long hours) I have 10 AV coins from Naples/ Two Sicilies. I collect pretty well all over the map and time periods. My AV collection (850 coins) spans all 28 centuries from 650BC to present day. Here is my oldest coin.... Ionia 650-600BC EL Trite obverse (bunch grapes?) NGC MS strike 4/5 surface 5/5 John
Actually, I had a "hole" in my left pocket in my camo trousers today. Luckily, for me I had my cash in my right pocket....otherwise I could not have bought my self lunch at Harvey's (really excellent burger place here in Canada) I usually have three well done cheeseburgers garnished with tomatoes/ onions/ with a ice cold Corona I walk 300 kms a week pushing a lawnmower to burn off all those 6000+ calories @ day!
Sweet! Ponterio really had a terrific selection of Italian coins at the ANA, looks like you scored a nice one too.
AV as in AU. V was used in Latin for both V and U. And so by saying AV, it is an archaic way of saying AU. AU is the periodic table abbreviation for the mineral gold. Hence, a gold coin in this case. AV means it's made of gold. Usually don't see that term used in modern coinage, more of an ancients thing. Modern as in anything struck since about 1600. They didn't use it in the lot description for this coin: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/l...76-bpcc-c-ferdinand-iv-pcgs-ms-63-gold-shield But they sure did for this ancient one: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/l...-mint-ad-15-18-ngc-ch-au-strike-55-surface-55
Thanks for the excellent explanation of what AV means. I see you have a nice Carlo Alberto, Regno di Sardegna AV in your avatar.
Indeed it is. Would you believe an AU55? Me thinks more like an MS62-PL now days, but at the time it was slabbed it was the second finest known for the date with the finest in an AU58 holder. The 1835 while generally available being a little bit tougher than the 1834 to find, especially in nice condition. I paid less than 400 bucks for it if that gives you an idea how long I've had it. Submitted the coin myself to PCGS a few years after I got it.
And it looks like they had no clue what the mint mark was. The "P" is not the mint, the Eagle head on the lower reverse is the mint mark of the Zecca di Torino (Turin) mint. And they only minted 26,360 of the 100 lire coins. If you see an anchor on the reverse it is the Zecca di Genova (Genoa) mint. To my knowledge they never minted any gold or silver coins on the small island of Sardegna (Sardinia). Even though it's called the Kingdom of Sardinia, the royal family lived in Torino .
That is because the Royal Family where rulers over Piedmont/ Aosta/ Savoy (Dukes) and King of Sardegna. That is why they resided in Northern Italy (Torino) Same for the "Two Sicilies" rulers resided in Naples.
You're a gardener? I thought you were a pro ball player. Or God. Someone like that. Gardening is an unpaid passion of mine.
Wow! A superb gold coin, panzerman. I'm not even jealous as it's now out of my league. But I do have quite a few of the silver coins of the Two Sicilies.
Very nice coin, from the land of my ancestors! Although my ancestors at that time probably didn't see a lot of gold coins, they were more likely to use something like this:
