Hi I'd like to share the story of one of my 13th Century coins with you. It isn't dated, and there seems to be some question as to the dating, as I will describe below.
According to Wikipedia, King James I "The Conqueror" became the Count of Barcelona in 1213 (at age 5) and kept that title until he abdicated shortly before his death in 1276 AD. He also ruled over Aragon and Montpellier for that entire time period, and Majorca and Valencia for shorter periods of time. As was the fashion at the time (and predictable based upon his nickname "the conqueror"), much of his rule involved military conquests, maritime exploration, and the crusades. During the crusade of 1269, he suffered a disfiguring injury to the superior orbital rim (bone above his left eye) caused by a crossbow bolt. According to his autobiography, "The Book of Deeds", he
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struck the arrow so with my hand that I broke it: the blood came out down my face; I wiped it off with a mantle of "sendal" [note: sendal is a silk fabric] I had, and went away laughing, that the army might not take alarm.
I would like to point out a significant deviation from this violent lifestyle that may be of interest, especially considering the current state of the world. He was a big fan of the local culture and language in Barcelona (Catalan) and wrote/dictated multiple books in Catalan. Walking around Barcelona in 2016, you will find a durable and palpable nationalistic pride for Catalan. The present-day separatists may not be as vocal as they have been in the past, but Catalan is clearly a source of pride for many in that part of Spain.
See below for pics of my dinero from Barcelona. The diameter is 17 mm and the mass is 1.0 g. The obv inscription reads BARQINO and the rev inscription reads IA CO BR EX. The attribution is C&C 1710, but here is where the dating seems off to me. According to Clemente and Cayon, it was minted for King James ("Jaime") between 1276 and 1285 AD, but that would seem to be after he died and there is no indication that this coin type was minted as a memorial following the king's death.
These coins are not particularly rare and I see several for sale on the interwebs. Interestingly, most folks are listing the date as 1276-1285 AD, but I do see some who list the date as 1213-1276 AD. I encourage others to post their James I coins here and perhaps weigh in on what date they consider correct.
Posted 07/17/2016 8:45 pm
