Early Dated Coin: 1493 Mainz Half Groshen

Hi I'd like to share the story of one of my coins with you.

I have already posted these pics in another CCF thread (over the main forum where they are trying to count down year by year with coin dates), but this is a pretty special coin so I'm hoping that you'll permit me to provide some additional detail here along with the duplicate pics.

According to Levinson's "The Early Dated Coins of Europe: 1234-1500", the German archbishopric of Mainz minted dated coins between 1425 and 1499. In the first half of this mintage, most coins were produced in the Bingen and Hoechst mints, but by 1490 all minting was done in Mainz. Interestingly, Mainz was part of the Rhineland Monetary Treaty of 1437, and thus committed to producing goldguldens and groschens of standard weight and style.

See below for a picture of my 1493 half groschen of Mainz (Lev. I-303). The diameter of this silver coin is 20 mm and the mass is 0.8 g. Most of the early dated coins of Mainz are super-rare, with only one variety likely available in a quantity exceeding 100 pieces. Levinson describes this coin as R2, meaning there are between 11 and 20 collectable coins extant. I don't see any 1493s for sale currently on vcoins or ma-shops—if you do ever see one of these guys, you should probably move pretty quickly!

Despite that Treaty of 1437 to have uniform coinage, the strike on my specific coin is quite uneven. The obverse includes a shield with the arms of Henneberg, Romhild, and Mainz (twice) and the inscription "BERT+ARCH+IPS+PRINC+ELE". On the reverse of this coin is the familiar theme of St. Peter, with a key in his right hand and cross in his left hand. In the background is the shield of Mainz-Palatinate. The text reads "S°PET°A-POST°1&93". As with other coins of this time, the number "4" is written more like our ampersand than our "4".

Mainz is a little west of Frankfurt on the Rhine River right where it connects with the River Main. Hoescht is now located in Frankfurt while Bingen is a little further west of Mainz on the Rhine. Clearly, trade along this river system played a huge role in the region's overall importance and stature within medieval Europe. According to Wikipedia, Mainz also has held an important place in medieval Christianity. Starting right around the year 1000 AD, the archbishops of Mainz were the most important of the seven Electors of the German Emperor and traditionally have been considered "primas germaniae" (substitutes of the Pope north of the Alps).