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<p>[QUOTE="seth77, post: 4026124, member: 56653"]The first thing to notice is that these are not official issues. The Hungarian denars that these specimens are mimicking were at both times billon with a silver look. These coins are contemporary counterfeits struck in copper, which probably had a very thin silvery coating to pass as official coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The second coin is an imitation of a denar from the first quarter of the 17th century of either Matthias II or Gabriel/Gabor Bethlen, very likely with reversed and mirrored legends.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first one is more interesting as it copies a denar from the Habsburg kings of Hungary in the 16th century. This is the golden age of counterfeiting for the Hungarian denars. But the legends seem to be literate and might make sense, at least on the reverse:</p><p><br /></p><p>DIVA . NI .... AVIE</p><p><br /></p><p>The Hungarian denar was extensively counterfeited during the 16th century, but also "adopted" by neighboring realms as local coin. One of these realms was the Principality of Moldova, where the denar was introduced in 1558 under Alexandru Lăpușneanu. These Moldavian coins had a reverse legend reading:</p><p><br /></p><p>PATRONA MOLDAWI / MOLDAWIE</p><p><br /></p><p>but were struck in good billon, thus not to defraud but rather to encourage trade between Moldova and Transylvania/Hungary.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your coin might be a counterfeit of such a neighboring coinage, of a Hungarian blueprint, but not exactly Hungarian. I have never seen a denar with DIVA instead of PATRONA but the Habsburg era is not my field.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="seth77, post: 4026124, member: 56653"]The first thing to notice is that these are not official issues. The Hungarian denars that these specimens are mimicking were at both times billon with a silver look. These coins are contemporary counterfeits struck in copper, which probably had a very thin silvery coating to pass as official coinage. The second coin is an imitation of a denar from the first quarter of the 17th century of either Matthias II or Gabriel/Gabor Bethlen, very likely with reversed and mirrored legends. The first one is more interesting as it copies a denar from the Habsburg kings of Hungary in the 16th century. This is the golden age of counterfeiting for the Hungarian denars. But the legends seem to be literate and might make sense, at least on the reverse: DIVA . NI .... AVIE The Hungarian denar was extensively counterfeited during the 16th century, but also "adopted" by neighboring realms as local coin. One of these realms was the Principality of Moldova, where the denar was introduced in 1558 under Alexandru Lăpușneanu. These Moldavian coins had a reverse legend reading: PATRONA MOLDAWI / MOLDAWIE but were struck in good billon, thus not to defraud but rather to encourage trade between Moldova and Transylvania/Hungary. Your coin might be a counterfeit of such a neighboring coinage, of a Hungarian blueprint, but not exactly Hungarian. I have never seen a denar with DIVA instead of PATRONA but the Habsburg era is not my field.[/QUOTE]
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