Medieval Monday!

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Well, Just Damn Fine, except that, several paragraphs into my reply, having repeatedly saved the draft, very conspicuously including the last one, the whole thing vanished under mysterious circumstances. I think I'm done with this for the day. This kind og thing has happened too many times, very specifically on this forum. I'm doing something else with my Sunday. Bye (expletive of choice) Bye.

 

I regret this happened to you, and I hope you are not too distressed to continue to participate in this forum, as I have found your comments very edifying and enjoyable. I always am pleased to see your contributions, as I know in reading them I will probably be learning something. Your efforts are appreciated.

That goes for all the rest of you smart and learned people, too. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

 

Sorry

If your reply was to my post, I am still certainly interested in what you have to say!

 

Well, it was responding to both of the last ones, but my comments on your Ceolwulf were effectively reducible to how fantastic it is to see a Mercian penny. Never mind the incredible condition, putting the little bite out of it under the radar. --That's, reflexively, as a subjective visual gestalt, never mind otherwise.
Sorry for taking this long to respond. Between the experience, and being barraged with ads featuring (oxymoron alert: ) 'bullion coins' depicting someone with a third sphincter on his face, I was really, thank you, done, for a long minute.

 

@Hrefn, please receive my criminally belated thanks for all of your kind words. I always look forward to your posts, to an equal degree, and for the same reasons. ...Yes, your last point is especially well taken. The community here represents a truly amazing aggregate level of erudition. ...Maybe a little top-heavy on the Classical side, but even (no, dope-slappng time, especially) there, I never fail to learn stuff I never would have known by other means.

 

Here's a petit denier of Thierry IV, bishop of Metz 1174-1179. Yes, for the region (Lorraine and points north and west), the strike is as typical as the module.



Obv. Profile left; possibly St. Stephen, Metz's patron saint. [T]EODER[IC].
Rev. Cross; sun and crescent in angles. [Sun/] METE[NSIS].
Thierry represents a worst case, perfect storm scenario of the kind of nepotism that could happen at the upper levels of church administration in the 12th century. His father was the duke of Lorraine; his maternal uncle, Friedrich Barbarossa, had him installed as Bishop of Metz. ...He was never recognized by the Papacy (to the latter's credit); Alexander III finally had him formally deposed, after which he lived another couple of years.
I think it's especially fun that, given his dodgy status as bishop, the issue is still in his name.

 

I have another coin from Metz that I haven’t shared yet. This was a Saturnalia gift!
Lorraine - Metz
Jacques de Lorraine, r. 1239-1260
AR Denier, 14.52 mm x 0.6 grams
Obv.: IA[ICOB]I, bust of bishop left with crosier
Rev.: METEN[SIS], cross with one star in each angle
Ref.: Roberts 8865, De Wit 537 variety

 

A new auction win from CGB, a multiple tari of Frederic II Hohenstaufen, the Stupor Mundi, which I was pleased to obtain significantly under the estimate. I guess other bidders were put off by the irregular flan, but I rather like it. These coins vary in weight, this being a heavier example at 3.14 grams. The well-centered obverse (IC XC NIKA) continues the triumphant message of the earlier Norman conquerors of Arab Sicily, who had themselves seized the island from the Byzantines. The reverse is pseudo-Kufic scrip, serving to lend a familiar look to the inhabitants who would have been exposed to a couple of centuries of Arabic gold coins. Having that side of the coin off center seems less important since the inscription is not intelligible anyway. Struck in Messina, I believe.
Bertolami auctioned the Spahr collection of Sicilian coins about 2 weeks ago, and I bid on a number of the coins, but did not win one. Spahr wrote the book on Sicilian coins, literally, in 1976. Copies are elusive. I am curious to know if anyone has it, and whether it is worth hunting and purchasing.

 

I have the Spahr book. It covers Sicilian coinage from 1282-1836 in a pretty detailed way with many varieties and information on mint masters. I have found it very useful.

 

Beautiful coin from a state best known for producing below standard imitations of coins of other states. Château-Renault only struck coins from 1610 to 1629 at the latest. On March 10 1629 the ruler Louise-Marguerite of Lorraine, widow of your François de Bourbon, sold the territory to the King of France. However, the little statelet's history goes back to its being created by King François I as a buffer state during his wars with Emperor Charles V. Henri de Lorraine, ruler by marriage to Catherine de Clèves , affirmed his right to strike coins in a decree of 1575 but never exercised the right.

 

Medieval Monday seems quite
Here’s my newest Anglo Irish penny
3rd light cross and pellets coinage
Dublin
Pellets at neck
Reverse quartrefoil
1473

S.6373g
Burns du-6a

 

Hopefully some medieval Ceylon counts?
Bhuvanaika Bahu I AD 1273-1284
Seated king, SRI BHU VA NI KA BA HU in Brahmi in two vertical lines in the left field / King standing, small altar in the left field, various dots and decorations in fields. Mitchiner NIS 850-852.

 

My English wins from last week's CNG:


Two Ed the Confessor cut pennies, an Edward IV groat, and a Charles I halfcrown with a pedigree going back to 1939. I think the British coin folks were sleeping in that day!

 

Apologies are due, to whoever has any use for them, for how long it took me to get to this. My now antiquated desktop (first one I ever bought new) had one of its regularly scheduled, sustained electro-neural episodes.
But just before that started happening, I got this.


Rainald von Dassel, Archbishop of Koln 1159-1197. AR obole /obol (half denar).
I've yet to even look for this in my .pdf of Dannenberg, but my trust in the dealer is otherwise, justly implicit. On the obverse, Yep, you've got Rainald, facing, holding a crozier and a Gospel book.
Rainald was prominent in the administration of Friederich I Barbarossa, notably as an envoy during Friedrich's diplomatic and military campaigns in the city-states of northern Italy. ...Which, at the time, were an increasingly nominal part of the German empire. From one of his Italian missions, Rainald brought the relics of the Three Magi back to Koln. Scored him some points with Friedrich. Here's a pic of Rainald, from the near-contemporary, correspondingly elaborate gold reliquary in the cathedral at Koln.


The obol is a terrific complement to a denar of Friedrich himself, from Aachen.

AR denar of Aachen, issued c. 1171-1190.
Obv. Friedrich crowned, enthroned, holding sword and orb, star in right field.
FREDERI [...] IM-P-R (‘FREDERI [CVS] IMP [E] R [ATOR].
Rev. Stylized skyline of Aachen, with crenellated stone wall and gate in the ‘foreground,’ roofs and spire (/dome) above.
+ROMA CAPVT MVNDI (‘Rome, Capital of the World’). (The spire may represent the central dome of Charlemagne’s original chapel, emulating the dome of Justinian in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. And, like it, still extant, as part of the much larger cathedral complex in modern Aachen.)
Bonhoff 1605 (plate coin); Krummbach 27.2, Menadier 27.
Since Aachen /Aix was Charlemagne's capital, the reverse legend symptomizes not only broader 12th-century perceptions of the Carolingian empire as a legitimate successor to the (western) Roman one, but also, given all that, how keen Friedrich was to appropriate Charlemagne's dynastic legacy.
By a fun twist of numisatic irony, the motifs of Friedrich's issue of Aachen are imitated by the succeeding bishop of Koln.

CT: L: Philipp von Heinsberg, Archbishop of Koln 1167-1191.
AR denar of Koln, 4th type, c. 1181-1190 (variant).
Obv. Philipp facing, enthroned, mitred, holding crozier in right hand, pennon surmounted by a cross in left.
[From 1 o'clock:] HIT ARC [...] EPISCOP [...] V
Rev. Stylized skyline of Koln Cathedral, the central tower surmounted by a cross, extending into the legend; Romanesque (or Carolingian?) arcading below.
+EIA COLONIA PAIC IIAI
Bonhoff 1582, Havernick 549 (variant). For reverse legend, see
http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotvi...Lot=1897&Val=8a21ade593f13678a803c97a9a159f84.

 

I’m a little behind as it’s Tuesday - in my defense, I’m currently visiting Greece! I’m chaperoning a school trip so my wife is still at home (and mad at me), but I made it to the Acropolis today:

so far the only Numismatically related item I’ve seen does happen to be Medieval - this hoard of mostly Constans II gold coins (one of my students was pointing at the one empty slot and was accusing me of taking one for my own collection…)


according to the museum plaque, the coins were found near the Asclepieion, and that Constans II spent the winter of 662/3 in Athens

 

Looks like everyone is on vacation and the post has been abandoned for two weeks. I'll try to revive with these two space fillers :
Crusader Antioch anonymous follis 1120-1140
MHP ΘOV in two lines
Cross with IC XC NI KA in angles
CCS 11
First one Ex Baldwin's Auctions 52 lot 1170 .

 

GERMANY, Schwäbisch Hall: AR Handheller, issued 1300-1356. 0.49g, 17mm.
Obv: "hand of God"
Rev: A cross with a pellet at each end.

The "hand heller" was in common use within southwest Germany in the 12th century, and soon became a de facto imperial coin. Many cities in the area coined their own Handhellar, but with no identifying mark (until an imperial edict of 1356 required a mintmark), there is no way to know for certain where these coins were minted.
The disastrous mortal disease known as the Black Death spread across Europe in the years 1346-53. Approximately 50 million died in Europe. This coin was in circulation during these dark times.

 

I think it’s more that people have migrated to a different forum…

 

Time for revived Medieval Monday....
From Roma Auction....
Mallorca
AV Real d'oro ND
Mallorca Mint
Pedro IV "El Cruel" 1336-87 King of Aragon/ as Pedro I of Mallorca
According to Taufer & Fau (3 exs known)