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

Great Britain 1708 halfcrown (Edinburgh Mint):

Nice! I've got a few Silesia coins coming up next few decades.

1707 1/12 thaler (2 groschen) coin struck in Leipzig for Saxony and Poland:

Almost back to the 17th Century already! Fantastic progress so far and I'm going to try to participate some, although not sure I've got much new stuff for another hundred years or so.

Here is a 3 Petermenger from the German Archbishopric of Trier dated 1706 AD. Speaking of Peter, that's him up in the cloud on the rev.

This 12 Mariengroschen from the German State of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel was featured in an earlier wildman thread ( http://goccf.com/t/264257 ). It is dated 1705 AD.

France 1704, ecu, Louis XIV, Paris (A).



Like most French ecus from this period, another restrike, more precisely the 4th restrike of ecus, performed 1704-05. I like this one, because one can clearly see that the host coin is from the 2nd restrike: the obverse shows clear traces of that coin, even the year of that restrike, 169(9?), is visible. Furthermore, the reverse shows vague traces from that restrike's host coin: a smaller circle in the mid circle, fleur de lis between the dittos of the current strike, plus some of the inscription. That coin is from the 1st restrike, performed 1690-93, and it is more likely than not that there is an even earlier original host coin (of which no traces remain, but the 1690-93 issue was primarily restrikes on old coins). A coin having gone through at least two, and probably three, restrikes!

Super coin @era!

Here is another oddity: a square Thaler from the German City state of Ulm that is dated 1704 AD. At 28 mm on a side and 13.8 g, it is a pretty hefty chunk of silver.

Thanks all


That is an interesting observation, tdziemia. I had to check my restrikes to see (what else is there to do on a Saturday evening ). Out of my five restrikes from this period, four are flipped the way you have observed (and the 1704 has gone through two such flips), so perhaps the mint workers did indeed do that on purpose.


The coins were struck with rather heavy but manual equipment: The balancier was a coin press where a powerful strike was generated by a long arm with heavy (lead or bronze) weights at the ends. The arm was swung by several men, who had to work in shifts. I suppose towards the end of a shift, the strikes may have been a bit weaker and the quality of the restrike a bit worse ...

Source: Diderot's Encyclopedia