Medieval Croatia (Ragusa): silver grosso portraying St. Blasius and Christ, ca. 1372-1438

Medieval Croatia (Ragusa): silver grosso portraying St. Blasius and Christ, ca. 1372-1438



Obverse: S BLASIVS RAGVSII, Saint Blasius standing, facing, raising hands in benediction and holding crozier.
Reverse: IC/XC, Christ standing facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels.

Ex-Künker am Dom, Munich, Germany, purchased raw through online store at ma-shops.com, 5/9/2015.

This is just a great looking medieval coin. I love the portrayal of Saint Blasius. His pose of benediction, coupled with his beard and robes, makes him look like a hippie of the 1960s flashing the peace sign (perhaps as played by actor Tommy Chong). No doubt that modern pop culture peace gesture had some of its origins in the ancient ecclesiastical one. For this reason, I've affectionately nicknamed this my "Hippie Coin", but aside from that, I love the toning and overall look of it.

Admittedly I have not seen very many of these, but this piece is head and shoulders above any others I've found in my web browsing so far, in terms of strike, quality, and eye appeal, if not grade. I just had to have it. It is also interestingly double-struck, if you look at the beaded lozenge that surrounds Christ on the reverse, and the letters to the right of it. The Lord and Savior looks slightly disgusted to be on the reverse of a coin in this particular instance, but who can blame Him, after all that stuff with the moneylenders in the temple, right?

I should add that since the seller would not ship to the United States, Dimitri from Greece (aka "SYRACUSIAN" on Collectors Universe) acted as my Eurozone intermediary in this transaction and relayed the coin to me, refusing any reimbursement of his shipping costs. Having such fine friends in other parts of the world is a wonderful thing.

Miscellaneous links:
Larger image
PCGS cert verification page (w/TrueView image link)

Wikipedia links:
Republic of Ragusa
Venetian grosso (Venice forced Ragusa to pay tribute in the 13th and early 14th centuries)
Saint Blasius (Saint Blaise)
Sign of the Cross (in Eastern Orthodoxy)
V-sign
(You probably don't need a Wikipedia link for Jesus Christ, right?)

When posted here, this coin had just been sold out of my "Eclectic Box of 20" collection, right after being graded XF40 at PCGS.