Can You Help ID Small Silver Labeled "Poland Denari 15th Century"?

Send a PM to Spence, his area of expertise and has some references.

Ok thanks for the vote of confidence @crazb0. I know a little about medieval Polish coins, but it is mostly just comparing against pictures or drawings in books rather than stuff rattling around in my brain. As far as the GUM attribution, I am not familiar with this specific book. For medieval Polish coins, I used Frynas as my first line and then back that up with Kopicki (which is written in Polish and therefore is a little harder for me to navigate).

@seeker55, your Denar definitely looks Polish with the crown on one side and the imperial eagle on the other. In the late 1300s through the late 1400s, there were several of this general style issued by Ladislaus Jagiello (1386-1434 AD), Ladislaus of Varna (1434-1444 AD), and Casmir Jagiellon (1447-1492 AD). The type of eagle and the type of crown can be used to distinguish between old and newer coins. The older eagle (called "Piast"), has flat, horizontal upper wings and vertical feathers while the newer eagle (called "Jagioellon") has upper wings that curve upwards as you go laterally out from the torso out to the tips and feathers which are at an angle to vertical. Your pics aren't super-clear, but I think that I see enough to determine that yours is a Jagiellon eagle. With the crown varieties, you need to determine if the horizontal parts touch or are separated and if there are tiny crosses between the uprights.

My best determination of an attribution for your coin is that it is Frynas P.18.3 and Kopicki #378. That means it was issued under the authority of Casmir Jagiellon and can be dated to 1479 AD plus or minus a couple years. I'd be interested in other opinions on the attribution.

You have a very nice coin there--thanks for sharing!

You actually had me bringing out my own 15th century Polish denar!

I think mine has the crosses, though, and I'm not sure which horizontal parts I should look for. It's also much darker.
(Eagle looks pretty much the same as on the OP's coin, though.)

I had it attributed to the ruler you call Ladislaus of Varna - that's wrong, I think? But either way it's Polish and 15th century.

interesting article about these coins with English summary http://mnk.pl/images/upload/o-muzeu...akowa_ok.pdf

I have a similar coin with the eagle, but mine seems to have a legend. Glad that your coin has been IDed.

A chronology of additional images covering "15th century Polish denars, Krakow mint." Sorry that my image editing skills aren't great. But this might help with spence's attribution.

1. Bob L image of the earliest, Wladislaw II Jagiello 1386-1434. Gumowski 411, and there is probably a matching Kopicki number

2. This one attributed as Wladyslaw of Varna 1434-1444. Not listed in Gumowski.




3. Photograph from Gumowski of the Krakow denar of Kasimir Jagiello (1447-1492)



4. Jan Olbrecht (1492-1501) Gum 466, Kopicki 385
This one is clearly ruled out as a match due to the annulet below the crown and small crosses within.