I'm Not Even Sure If This Coin Is Classified As An "Ancient"

only 413 years old? that's not ancient, bet it still has that new coin smell.

i think its a great coin, i'd love to have it. it would probably be classified as "medieval", I've bid on a couple coins from about that period but haven't got one yet...but I will for sure.

Even those of us who collect Ancients can appreciate a nice "modern" coin. Very nice.

French? Right?
Those Fleurs de lis made me think France.
The expression "I have an old coin" varies from person to person.
"My grandfather's coins" could easily equal those which I collected as a young person. Nothing special.
BUT
My great aunt's coins go back to the twenties and thirties.
Oh, back to the post:
I agree that "medieval" is a proper term for the coin.
(I am getting old.)
If I may hazard a guess, "ancient" refers to coins made before the dark ages descended upon Europe.
Previous to 500AD or so?

Some of the Byzanetine Empire went back to 1200's, still considered Ancient...

I allow an overlap between the terms but not as much as many do. To me, modern coins begin when mints started to use machinery to make coins that were pressed rather than hammered. That would make this coin modern. I've never considered Byzantine to be ancient but place the whole of it in medieval even though most collectors of ancients do have a few as a continuation of the old Romans. There are European hammered silvers that scream out 'medieval' to me but are centuries older than many Byzantines. History is not something easily fit in a box after you leave the high school level.

The Russian wire coins are really oddballs when it comes to forcing into a period. They are hammered and crude making them look medieval but their dies were mechanically reproduced (a very modern thing to do). Peter I, the last to issue wire money, forced Russia to abandon the old ways and dragged his country kicking and screaming into the modern era. This parallels what he did to coins in Russia even though the modern ways had been used elsewhere for a long time.

Don't be too worried about labels but try to understand how the coins mirored the changes in the cultures that made them.

Sure, whatever you say, Boss ... oh, and thanks for the info/ruling regarding where you feel that the "borders" between the various coin classifications should be located ...



=> oh and hey, wherever this thread is located is definitely a-okay with me, because I already know exactly where the coin itself is gonna be located when it arrives at my house ... I can hardly wait!! (man, the waiting is the hardest part)