what is this coin

take a look and tell me please

 

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It looks like a Papal States medal commemorating the mythical Pope Joan,who was said to be one of the Popes of Rome.

Here's an article; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan .

Aidan.

 

Aiden:
Very interesting, thanks for the info.

 

Nice coin! And good info Aidan. :thumb:

Phoenix

 

Its hard to tell, but does the face become a different face when you turn it 180 degrees?
Like its a woman one way, and a man another? Thats what it looked like to me before
I read a bit about 'Pope Joan', a woman that impersonated a man to become pope.
But then again, the pics are a bit small and blurry...

 

It's a 18th century religious medal, hard to tell from pics....

 

Still debateable whether or not Pope Joan really even existed (majority of historians tend to beleive not). Still, it's an interesting legend. Wonder why anyone would make a medal of her, since most Catholics insist there never was such a person?

Can't really read the legend from the pics, could you post what it says (or show bigger pics)? Should give more of a clue.

 

Troodon,don't forget that there is also a card game that is also called Pope Joan.As to how you play it,I don't know,apart from the fact that you don't want to be left with the Popess of Rome card in your hand.

Aidan.

 

Another idea. The first characters seem to be IOAN.CALVINVS ... that could refer to the French/Swiss church reformer John Calvin. Maybe some kind of satirical token?

Christian

 

Oh my poor eyes. But with a little imagination the inscription could read: IOAN · CALVINVS · HERESIARCH · PESSIMVS. In other words, "John Calvin, the worst heresiarch". Then again, I have been wrong before, hehe.

Christian

 

Christian,it sounds like an anti-Protestant medal that was issued by one of the Popes of Rome to promote sectarianism against the Protestant Churches,especially the Lutheran & Anglican Churches.

Aidan.

 

Good going Christian and Aidan ..

 

Aidan,

The images and information supplied by the original poster are truly duff and to be totally frank, as useful as a one legged man in a butt kicking competition.

In the absence of clearer images or an indication of what the legends actually say, we are all addressing the virtual hurricane of possibilities by passing wind in the form of conjecture and reasoned `guesses'. In other words, `farting into the wind'.

It does appear to be the kind of medal issued in Germany / Low Countries and indeed England (1543-1678) expressing the high religious feelings that pervaded much of western Europe in the aftermath of the reformation.

By far the greatest number of pieces (and greatest variety of designs) were disseminated by the protestants as a means of ridiculing the catholic church. However the anti- protestant ones issued by the church of Rome are also quite numerous.

The standard anti-catholic medals likened the Pope to the devil (surprise surprise) and likened a cardinal to a fool. The catholic response was to issue similar inverse portrait type medals indicating that the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor could overthrow heresy.

The last series of anti-popish (inverting bust) medals were made in England at the time of the so-called Popish Plot of 1678. This posters example could be one of many such medals. The legends are the key.....and that takes me back to my opening statements...........

Reference: Mitchiner `Jetons medalets and tokens - The Low Countries and France (volume two). It's a book that is reasonably priced if you are into jetons and medalets such as that one. I would recommend that the original poster starts searching for a copy if he/she wants to learn any more concerning same.

 

The inscription is

Thanks to all who replied! I appologize to those I may have offended! I do wish I had the equipment to give a better post, I'm working from a laptop with a cheap pc camara, it's all I have. I am also very green with everything here from this keyboard at the end of my finger to what you call theards. which by the way I did try to get rid of one of the threads I created for the same post but to no avail. Anyway heres the inscription. Can you transilate?

on one side it reads, "ioan ca lvinvs hepesiapch pessimvs." opposite: "psal xciii et sivlti aliovando sa"

 

Looks like Christian's eyesight and sleuthing prevails!

The actual legends are IOAN CALVINUS HERESIARCH PESSIMUS (obverse), (translates as `the worst heretic, John Calvin') and ET STULTI ALIQUANDO SAPITE PSAL. XCIII (reverse). The reverse legend is taken from the book of Psalms 93:8 which is (in full) "intellegite qui insipientes estis in populo et stilti aliquando sapite" and which translates as: "Understand, ye senseless among the people: and, you fools, be wise at last."

It is an anti-Calvinist satirical medal (undated circa mid 16th century probably 1544 or later) with the bust of the pope wearing a triple tiara, inverting to a bust of the devil with sows ears and horns.

On the reference example i'm looking at, the reverse has a bust of a Cardinal wearing a flat cap which inverts to the bust of a jester wearing a cap with bells. Can you tell me if yours matches this description?

 

YES! YES! YES! you are the winner, Outstanding my friend, now I am happy! It was not my intent but in hind sight I wish it had been! If so, the post would have read: If you can tell me whats on the reverse of this coin/medal/thing, you win the "I KNOW WHAT IT IS PRISE! Well, no prise but thank you so much! Now I can do more research without long tedious hours of useless results. I know this medal is worthless but I've had the thing for so long I've become attatched so there's plenty of sentimental value to it. Thanks again Ian, I appreciate the help.

 

I was curious, and after a few minutes googling, found this,
its taken from a russian site, "Encyclopedia Of Brockhaus and Efron", under 'Caricature',
its just a part of it, and its really really poorly translated, but it is more than likely talking about your medal:

"Protestants manufactured coin with insulting to the Pope images and to "attain power protivna God", which in 1537-47 respectively. spread in Germany, France and England. Defenders of the uprising in its part, a medal against Calvin to "Calvinus heresiarch. Pessimus, illustratora tower painted with volchei head or polulisic, poluobezian seeking pojrati France. But even in France there has been little actual K. against Luther.
In Toulouse on the side of the chair in mizericorde teaches German pig with the inscription that Calvin.
At the end of the 16th century art. and the beginning of the seventeenth art."

 

ok, here you go, I found it exactly, this is taken from a PDF from http://medals.luxpub.com/calvin/
you can dl the whole thing, its a free download.

 

Thanks, that is great. do you know how I can find out how old mine is?

 

Cool,I like the thought of collecting anti-Romish medals.Can anyone please post some photos of other anti-Romish medals?

Aidan.