The LRB Campgate, as immortalized (ha, ha) in the 9th and 11th centuries

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by +VGO.DVCKS, Oct 21, 2021.

  1. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    First, if you haven't yet, you should look at what's only the latest thread here on Roman camp gates: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/constantine-campgate.387862/.
    Meanwhile, here's an example, cribbed from ACSearch. Not having collected LRBs since the '70's, the ones I used to have have found a good home. (...One can hope.)

    3710350.jpg

    https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3710350

    I finally landed a denier of Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, imitating the reverse motif. (Yup, dealer's pictures --I could take better ones, but it would take an extra life.)*
    CAROLINGIAN, CAMP GATE, CHARLES II, ORLEANS.jpg

    Carolingian Francia. Charles II, the Bald, King of the West Franks 840-877.
    Denier of Orleans, prior to the reform following the Edict of Pitres, 864.
    Obv. Cross, with pellets in each corner (corresponding to issues of Charles's dad, Louis I, 814-840). +CAROLVS REX FR
    Rev. A Freaking Late Roman Camp Gate, just half a millenium later. (From 6 o'clock: )
    +AVRE [...] LI [...] ANIS (Orleans). Depeyrot (3rd ed., 2008) No. 725 (pp. 327-9, for illustrations).
    This is one instance, in the earlier phases of the medieval period, when you have to suspect that hoards were being found on a more or less regular basis. By contrast, you could suppose that even the amazing stuff that detectorists are finding now represents the (relatively) higher-hanging fruit. ...Yes, coins were also circulating continuously, over comparable, improbable intervals (on a commensurately anecdotal scale), but, Uh-Uh, hoards were a big thing as early as this. As someone here noted recently, one of them got Richard I of England killed.
    The Carolingian gate motif went on to be imitated in Orleans during the early 11th century. (Again, Yep, with the dealer's pics; from French ebay.)
    ORLEANS, GATE, HUGH HUGUES CAPET FILS, OBV..JPG
    ORLEANS, GATE, HUGH HUGUES CAPET FILS, REV..JPG
    Viscounty of Orleans (within the early Capetian royal demesne). Anonymous denier, traditionally attributed to Hugues (d.1025), a son of the Capetian Robert II of France (reigned 996-1031).
    Obv. City gate; letters in field, from left: "H;" "V" (lower), "G" (retrograde; right), "O" (top, puncutuated by 'turrets' of the gate, as in both the preceding examples).
    Rev. Cross; +AVRF[/E]LANIS CIVTAS ('City of Orleans').
    Duplessy 522, with minor legend variants, typical of the period.
    Not least in reference to the earlier phases of the medieval period, it's fun to speculate, not only about the recurrence of late Classical motifs on coins (for instance, sceattas --please see @Roerbakmix's recent thread,
    https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ba...milarities-with-sceattas.387944/#post-7961403 and @John Conduitt's,
    https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...ns-dark-age-coins-part-2.387272/#post-7957091), but the way in which people subjectively related to history in their own (thank you, for us, historical) periods. --One thing you get to know about people is that, at least in any context prior to social media --and, Maybe, Massive, Toxic waves of inbreeding-- they weren't dumb. Illiterate? Often. Dumb? Not So Much.

    *For anyone paying this much attention, Cgb.fr. continues to have a fantastic archive of their prior sales ...but in recent years, they've walked away from their earlier concentration in medieval, notably Carolingian and French feudal. As if their expert in that field --broad as it is-- is no longer with them. I hope for the best; maybe retirement.
    But in consequence, it eventualy landed on me to look at what they still had in their online shop ...with old-fashioned prices. This was one of them.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2021
    ominus1, BenSi, John Anthony and 14 others like this.
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. seth77

    seth77 Well-Known Member

    ominus1, BenSi, +VGO.DVCKS and 5 others like this.
  4. Curtisimo

    Curtisimo the Great(ish)

    Great coin @+VGO.DVCKS . It’s also interesting to consider that the iconic campgate type was probably derived from an earlier and more elaborate design from Diocletian’s reign.

    0791FF7B-DEBC-4943-B8C1-14C6D833459B.jpeg
    B3A9E73D-C8CE-4255-8D2E-334A954678A7.jpeg

    I posted a write up on these coins here.
     
    ominus1, BenSi, Hrefn and 3 others like this.
  5. +VGO.DVCKS

    +VGO.DVCKS Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the terrific coins and links, @seth77 and @Curtisimo! Wow, there were some fantastic threads going on here just before I joined.
    @Curtisimo, I have to love that quasi-aerial view on the Diocletian. That is one amazing thread. I only got through the first page before a (pleasantly) surprise errand intervened. But, Yeah, the sheer range of the variations are really cool. I like how everyone stepped up to the plate.
    @seth77, as you know, complementing the deniers of Tripoli and the denaros of Genoa are the late-12th and earlier 13th-century deniers of the Lusignan kings of Cyprus. The later ones --yes, very much after the fact-- resemble the ones of Genoa particularly closely. I'm still under time constraints, but I might add a few of them to your thread instead of this one --they'd do better service in advancing the thematic content there than here.
    ...But no, just for the record, and with apologies for taking this long to get to this, anyone could do anything architectural here. Points awarded for expansiveness!
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2021
    BenSi and Curtisimo like this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page