How Far Back Can We Go? Sixth Edition! Ended At 1380 Waiting On 1379

1722 -- Electorate of Pfalz, 20 kreuzer:





(this coin has a strange look about it)

Not sure what you are seeing. I have a German/Polish coin for 1704 that appears to have been pretty well struck, but the surfaces of the devices have a roughness to them that doesn't look like normal wear (the fields on the other hand, are much smoother). I'm not experienced enough to know if this is the result of something in the planchet, the dies, or maybe a later cleaning (or a combination).
I also wonder about the age of the fingerprint on that Utrect duit. Lying next to the stripes on the shield, it makes for a neat visual effect.

1721 -- Kingdom of Great Britain, 1 farthing:

That is a lovely kreuzer, @pepactonius!

France 1721, ecu, Louis XV, Paris (A).




This coin is struck on a previous ecu dated 1718 (you will see it in three days). It was part of the sixth and last reformation (overstrike) of gold and silver coins, a procedure that had been carried out repeatedly since 1690. Overstrikes were simpler and cheaper to perform than to melt down old coins and recoin into new, but often traces of the host coin remained visible, like on this one (I show the host coin aligned with the overstrike in another post).

The purpose of the series of overstrikes was to improve the state finances, which were in a terrible state after the many and long wars during the 17th century. At each overstrike, old coins were demonetized and mandatorily brought to the nearest mint, where they were bought at a specified price. (Remember that, apart from small change, French coins during the old regime had no denomination; their value in livres, sous, and deniers was set by royal decree and could vary from time to time. Usually there were fairly long intervals between such changes, but during the turbulent period 1690-1720 the value was changed about 50 times.) The overstruck coins were valued at a higher price, so for instance bringing in 6 ecus valued at 5 livres each - totaling 30 livres - you might get 5 overstruck ecus back, but valued at 6 livres each - again totaling 30 livres, but the extra ecu went to the Treasury ...

For this particular overstrike, the old ecus were paid with 6 livres each, the new overstrikes were valued at 9 livres each, so a fairly good profit for the Treasury.

I needed to look VERY closely! I noticed the word NOMEN of the "understrike" obverse starting around 11:30 above the laurel leaves in the king's crown. Then followed the legend backward to find the lower part of the 8 peeking out to the left of the V in "XV". Of course, the curved part of the shield is coming out of the king's nose!

I haven't seen many coins from the Middle East posted, so let me change that at least for 1721.

1721 (AH 1133) - silver 'abbasi of the Safavid Dynasty
Persia (Isfahan mint), Sultan Husayn

1720-1835 -- French Establishments in India / Pondichery, 1 doudou:

1720 France Half Sol: