Walking Back In Time From 1600 To Antiquity By Decades (V3.0)

Here is a duo from France: two Blancs dateable to 1422 and 1423 AD.

The first coin was minted in Rouen and has an obv inscription of FRANCORVM ET ANGLIE REX and a rev inscription of SIT NOMEN BENEDICTV HENRUCVS. It is attributed as Duplessy 445 and Roberts 2963.






The second coin is attributed as Duplessy 462 and Roberts 3002. I don't love the ragged flan, but I suppose it is a bit like @tdz's coin in that respect.

Well 1424 and 1425 AD are holes in my collection, but this Double Gros minted in Tournai is from the second emission and therefore datable to 1429 AD. It is attributed as Duplessy 480A.

I think @erafjel has commented on another thread about the French royal system of coinage decrees, and what it meant about the likely date of actual minting.

I think the system in the Low Countries was similar. In some instances, the ducal edicts that authorized the coinage can be combined with mint records to narrow it to within a calendar year or at least a 12 month period. While my 1427 coin is listed in auction catalogs as "emission of 1427," the coin could theoretically have been minted as late as November 1428, when the 1427 decree was superceded by a new decree (which specified the use of the barred A to distinguish from earlier coinage). Likewise, the "emission of 1428" type might have been minted into the next year.

Then there is the matter of the calendar "turning over" on Easter back then in this part of the world ... So, the year 1428 only began on April 13.

For Florence, the mintmasters (one for gold, one for silver) changed twice per year most years, for reasons I don't understand. The sigla of the mintmaster (often the family coat of arms) was incorporated in the coin design, and can be used to date the coin to a 6 month period as long as there are records for when each mintmaster served, which seems to be the case for much of the 15th-16th centuries, as well as parts of the 14th.

Similar system for Venice, though the tenure of the mintmasters does not seem to have been restricted to 6 months, so Venetian coins are only sometimes datable within a year. For the 1440s and 1450s, I identified 4 years where Venetian coins might be attributable to a single year (1443, 1447, 1450 and 1452).

I don't know the system in Humgary, but suspect it is similar to Venice since we see pairs of letters as on Venetian coins.

Indeed he did Here is that comment: http://goccf.com/t/365955#3141468

Basically one cannot in general say with certainty that coins are minted only the year of the decree, but often that is the case since minting was done in batches. I have no coins for the 1420s, but for the upcoming decade I have two dateable to 1413 sharp!

That's very interesting. It's lucky the documentation survived. But it shows how much work goes into dating coins.

Talking of which, I have this Henry VI groat dated 1427-1434 by the various and revered auction houses that have sold it before. So in theory I can post it now. But I'm not so sure - it's a mule of two issues that seem to have crossed over in 1435. But what do I know.

Henry VI First Reign Groat, 1427-1434, or perhaps 1435

Calais. Silver, 28mm, 3.9g. Pinecone-mascle/Leaf-trefoil mule. +hENRIC.DI.GRA.REX.ANGL.S.FRANC. +POSVI DEVM:A DIVTOR EMEVM; VIL:LA: CALI SIE. Cross patonce mintmark (S 1875/1899). Ex Ivan Buck.

It's from the Reigate Brokes Road (Surrey) Hoard, found in 1990 not far from a 1972 discovery of 987 coins. Two pottery jugs contained 6,705 groats, half-groats and pennies, stacked vertically in concentric circles. It was the largest post-1351 British hoard. Like the 1972 hoard, the coins dated from 1272 to 1455 and were mostly of Henry VI. It was abandoned around 1454, the year of peace between the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses.

I think it means 'town' instead of 'city'. 'Villa' applies to Bristol and Calais; 'Civitas' applies to Durham, York and London.

Note in Britain, we are much more particular about what counts as a city than many other places, especially the US.

...when consistently done, a very helpful suggestion for an abecedarian like me.

Great additions to the thread today!

Here is a 1st cousin to @john's Groat. Mine was also minted in Calais, but is attributed as S-1826. I believe that it can be dated to between 1422 and 1427 AD. The obv inscription is HENRIC DI GRA REX ANGL Z FRANC and the rev inscription is POSVI DEVM ADNTORE MEVM VILLA CALISIE.