How Far Back Can We Go? Fifth Edition! Ended At 1461 Waiting On 1460 C. E. (A. H. 864)

Nice to see a gold coin!
I have some earlier Brabant gold, though also none with a date. I will try to remember to post one when we hit the date range ...

Here is my 3 Kreuzer from the German Free City of Isny dated AD 1555:

Here is a Groschen from the German Countship of Stolberg-Konigstein-Rochefort dated AD 1554:

Here are 2 variations of a 1554 N-C Hungarian Denar under King Ferdinand I. The first has 3 rosettes under the Madonna and the second 3 points under the Madonna.

Nice to have you back here @ed--I'm looking forward to seeing more Hungarian coins in the next several weeks!

1554 -- Free City of Kempten, 3 kreuzer:

Counter toke, not sure about the date

GLICK KVMPT VON GOT ISTWAR
Truly good fortune comes from God
Three crowns, alternately with three lis, arranged around a central rose.
HANS SCHVLTES NORNBER
Imperial orb within a double tressure of three arches and three angles.
HANS SCHULTES I master 1553, died 1584
(HANS SCHULTES II master 1586, died 1603)
(HANS SCHULTES III master circa 1608, died 1612)
The first Hans Schultes was the son of the founder of the jeton making mint Iorg (or Georg) Schultes originally Schultheiss and the others were his grandson and great grandson respectively the dates each were mint masters is as follows:-
Georg Schultes 1515 to 1553. Hans Schultes 1 1553 to 1584. Hans Schultes 2 1586 to 1603. Hans Schultes 3 1608 to 1612.
The earliest reckoning counters or jetons are generally thought to have been copied from the Edwardian pennies of England, they invariably have a hole or indentation punched in the centre. During the middle ages production changed to France and the Low Countries. Then the Nuremberg jetton masters began by copying the counters of their European neighbours, gradually by the early 16th century they had a monopoly to manufacture them, which lasted for over three centuries
Can be found in the Mitchener catalog

France, teston, 1553, Henry II

This silver piece is one of the earliest French coins made with a mechanical press.

Henry II was not pleased with the quality of his portraits on the hammered testons, so he wanted to introduce mechanized coining, which had been demonstrated to give superior results. However, the idea of replacing manual hammering of coins with mechanical equipment did not appeal to the conservative Paris Mint Board, and they effectively resisted introducing it in the mint. In the end, Henry set up an alternate mint in 1551 where the mechanical presses and other equipment could be installed. There the testons were minted until Henry's death 1559, at which time the Paris Mint intervened and re-introduced hammering. After that, mechanical coining was restricted to medals and small denomination copper issues. It was not until 1640 that Louis XIII mandated that mechanical coining should be used for all coins with portraits - still opposed by the Paris Mint Board, but this time they had to yield.