Quarantine Diary

Day 27: George III half crown, 1817

For comparison, I posted a Queen Anne 1711 shilling below.
You can see that by late George III, the UK had finally given up its claim to the throne of France. The Fleur-de-Lys is gone from the coat of arms, and the royal titles no longer mention France. England lost its last mainland French holdings under Queen Mary I, in 1558, but continued claiming the throne until the French Revolution. Now that France was no longer a monarchy, England dropped its claim to the French throne as part of the peace negotiations with the Republic.

 

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Day 28: Coins from Zeeland, the southwestern-most province of the Netherlands.

Top L/Bottom R: 1 Duit, 1788. Ob: Coat of Arms, lion rising from the waves, and the motto "Lucto Et Emergo" (I struggle, and emerge) Rev: "ZELANDIA 1788"

Top R/Bottom L: 1 Duit, 1745, for use in the Netherland East Indies. Ob: Coat of arms with shield surrounding Rev: "VOC 1745" (VOC is the Dutch East India Company)

Zeeland was largely below sea level, and subject to frequent flooding. This explains the theme of the lion emerging from the waves in the coat of arms. The nation of New Zealand (Aotearoa) is named after Zeeland, in spite of the spelling change. These two coins had overlapping date ranges, so they could have circulated simultaneously. The Dutch East Indies version is larger in diameter by 1 mm but lighter by 0.1 g, so it must have been made on a slightly thinner planchet.

I didn't get these at the same time or place, but they make a nice set. They were both quite affordable--a few dollars each.

 

Day 29: James II Maundy coins, 3 Pence and 2 Pence, both 1687

 

Day 30: Some UK Farthings
From top L: Victoria 1895 and 1896, Edward VII 1909, George V 1916, George VI 1941, Elizabeth II 1955
I've also posted some Japanese stuff in a separate thread.

 

Day 31:
German Empire, Prussia, 3 Marks, 1913
Also a 2 marks of the same design which was made into a pin.
I wrote about this in my blog earlier when I got the pin. When I saw the three mark I felt compelled to make a set of them. I believe they commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Prussian declaration of war against Napoleon's France in 1813. The words are from an 1813 song about the event: "DER KÖNIG RIEF UND ALLE ALLE KAMEN." (The king called and they all, all came.) Below it reads: "MIT GOTT-FÜR KÖNIG UND VATERLAND 17-3-1813." (With God--for King and Fatherland, March 17, 1813.)

You can tell this was made at a time of increased tension between Germany and France during the run-up to the Great War. The eagle probably represents Prussia and the snake either Napoleon or France in general. Oddly, the design is almost identical to the eagle devouring a serpent of Aztec mythology shown on many coins from the post-colonial Mexico.

 

Day 32: A set of loose UK silver 6 pence coins
From top L: William III, George III, William IIII, Victoria (1876, 1890, 1899), Edward VI (1910), George V (1935), George VI (1938)
I can't make out the dates on the first three as they are quite worn.

 

Day 33: Netherlands Maastricht siege 1 stuiver 1579
From the siege of Maastricht by the Spanish during the 80 Years' War (War of Dutch Independence). The Spanish eventually captured the town after 4 months and sacked it.

 

Hmm... Double post. Please disregard this one.

 

Day 34: Some UK pennies
From top L: George III 1797 "Cartwheel" (In need of a bath!), 1855 Victoria, 1st portrait (these are bigger than the later ones, at 2/3 oz. of copper), 1874 Victoria, 2nd portrait, 1900 Victoria, 3rd portrait, 1908 Edward VII, 1921 George V

Honestly, it looks like someone used the George III cartwheel penny as a coaster or something!

 

Day 3: How about an early Indian silver? The attribution says "Magadha (India), Period of Mahapadma Nanda, 346 BC, Middle Period 1r, M4404" I don't know nearly enough about these types to interpret some of that. Here's a similar one on Numista.

 

Day 36: Some florins (L) and half crowns (R)
The older ones are in pretty rough shape; it's hard to find larger coins from that era at close to melt. From top L:
Florins: "Gothic" Victoria MDCCCLV = der... 1855, Victoria 1899, George V 1929, George VI 1944
Half Crowns: Young Victoria (date = ???), George V (1928)

 

Day 37: One Penny Model Token, 1844
I believe these were privately issued tokens meant to be a prototype for a smaller, bimetallic UK penny. At the time (1841-1860) , the UK used the larger Victoria coppers, at 24 to the pound weight (not value). These below are about 4 grams. Even though they were unofficial and not from the mint, they were popular enough to circulate as tokens. This one has a bit of wear of the lines of the "1" on the reverse, suggesting it did get around for a while. The official replacement for the large Victoria pennies was the smaller, 2nd portrait design, which was half the size of the earlier series at 48 to the pound weight.

 

Unofficial patterns produced by Joseph Moore of Birmingham. There are a number of varieties but the one to look for is the PENNEY error.

 

Thanks! Do you have any suggestions on where to find pricing info on these? My local coin shop guy gave up on finding a reference on these and sold it as part of a larger lot of coppers for about 5 dollars.

 

These two pages, extracted from an old book, help with identification and relative value, but it is "old" and so doesn't help with up to date values.

 

Reasonable specimens tend to sell in the UK for around £10. So I'd say a fair price and you got the rest free.

 

Thanks for the pricing help! I didn't write it clearly--I meant $5 more when added to some other stuff. My local coin shop guy usually prefers not to sell stuff if he can't look up an approximate price in a book or online. But sometimes he throws up his hands (figuratively) and takes a wild guess so as not to have to waste the time looking it up. If the price is not high, I figure I can't go too far wrong.

That's how I got the penny model for $5, or the Monneron Brothers token for $10. If I can, I look them up later to see if I can develop my eye for finding interesting and obscure stuff at a fair price.

 

Day 38: I'm running out of photos, so I went through my unsorted packaged stuff and found a few more things to photograph.

Today: Lithuania 2 Litu, 1925.

I think most of these 20th century coins are single year types. Lithuania seems to have only minted coinage for 2 years, 1925 and 1936 in the years as an independent nation from 1918-1940. I thought the denomination was "DULITU" at first and had trouble finding it online. That's what I get for not speaking any Lithuanian! "Du" = 2. "Litu" = the plural of litas, the unit of currency. Oddly, there is another pluralization, "litai" used on the 5 litai coin. I have no idea what the difference between a nominative and genitive plural is, or why different denominations would need different plurals. Any Lithuanian speakers out there?

 

Day 39: A pre-Krone Danish coin.
Denmark, 16 Skilling, Frederik VII, 1856
I believe 16 of these made a rigsdaler, so a nice, round 96 skilling to the daler.

 

Day 40: India, 2 Annas, 1892