Nurnberg Pfennig - Is My Attribution Right?

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Author	Replies: 3 / Views: 1,014
january1may Pillar of the Community Russian Federation 5174 Posts	Posted 05/05/2017 09:38 am Bought this little silver coin as leftover stock from a dealer who mostly worked with Russian stuff ($9 for this and a Hungarian denar from 1557). Best I can tell, it's a pfennig from Nurnberg. This Saurma type is pretty close, but whatever's on top of this thing doesn't look like a date for me, and the letter N at the bottom (if it's even a N) is of completely different style. After some searching, I ended up with this example, which is attributed as Kellner 118, 1465-7. Is this a match? (And where does such a precise date range come from?) I also found another example with the same attribution, which doen't look quite that similar. Oh, right, I forgot the photo... Nurnberg AR pfennig, 15x13mm (the photo is a bit squashed, due to the way I took it, but the coin really is slightly oblong in that direction). Report this Post to the Staff

Spence Moderator United States 34424 Posts	Posted 05/05/2017 7:37 pm @J1M, great pick-up! I'm sorry that I don't have Kellner's book in my library. However, in looking at the two books that I use to find coins from this area and time frame, I note that while Saurma doesn't have your specific coin, other coins of Nurnberg from the late 1400s and early 1500s have that same Gothic, backwards letter N (e.g. Saurma 1220). Similarly, in the 1997 auction catalog of Bonhoff, lot 2028 shows a similar N. In the description for that lot, 18 pfennigs were included,with dates ranging between "after 1424" and 1515 AD. I'd feel pretty comfortable with your tentative attribution. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Report this Post to the Staff
january1may Pillar of the Community Russian Federation 5174 Posts	Posted 05/05/2017 8:15 pm @Spence, thanks! I think this photo might be a little better (I took it under 4x magnification on the same darn smartphone camera)... ...okay, that zoom sucked, and I'm not sure which pic is actually better. I actually liked the denar too, but some evil guy who owned it about three dealers ago stuck a tiny circular sticker in the middle of it saying "Denar Kremnica 10.-" (i.e. 10 euros), incidentally nearly covering up the Kremnica mintmark (but there's apparently no other mint for that year anyway). So now I'm wondering whether I should try to carefully peel the sticker off or just leave it that way. Report this Post to the Staff
Spence Moderator United States 34424 Posts	Posted 05/05/2017 8:21 pm @J1M, it looks to me like the top part of your coin has chipped away and that is at least partially why it is no longer round. I bet you've lost a good 3-5 mm of metal from 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock. As far as removing the sticker from the denar, I would definitely remove it and soak your coin in acetone to remove the adhesive. Keeping it on certainly doesn't help and could potentially damage the surface. At the very least, the coin will continue to patinate unevenly, which I think most of us find undesirable. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Report this Post to the Staff
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