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 Replies: 9 / Views: 882 |
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Valued Member
United States
108 Posts |
Wondering if the folks here can help me confirm the ID of this coin. I'm lucky to have these hand written notes - this one from 1935, I think. Does it match this entry? Seems to match to me but I've missed things before or gotten denominations confused. Thanks! https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces416391.html   |
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Moderator
 United States
34395 Posts |
Matt, what an awesome coin that you have posted here. Looks like a variant of Biaggi 1737. Here is a link to a similar piece on acsearch: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6036913Definitely keep that scrap of provenance with the coin! "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
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2869 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7933 Posts |
Beautiful example of this coin! (I've got one struck by his dad, Jacopo II).
To correct some of the info you received on that card ...
- Carrara was the name of the noble family that ruled Padua in the 13th-14th century. So the ruler named on the coin is Francesco I Carrara
- The Carrara name has nothing to do with the Tuscan place named Carrara with the marble quarries (about 200 km away as the crow flies), so the coin was not struck for use in Carrara, nor was the cart which is on their coat of arms something used to transport marble.
- According to Wikipedia the cart was called a carro, so it was probably adopted for their coat of arms because of the alliteration with the family name, and some other long lost meaning.
Edited by tdziemia
06/07/2025 4:26 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
108 Posts |
Thanks for the replies and insight! Thanks for the details on the coin and family.
It's a very cool coin in hand. I actually didn't get the best photos but there's some nice toning on it.
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
I don't know Italy all that well, but I don't even recognize that reverse. (Which makes it really cool & interesting to me!)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
I love medieval/Renaissance Italy coins. There are a few places that were rather formulaic: Venice with St. Mark, Florence with St. John, Genoa with its castle gate, Lucca with its holy face. But there was also a lot of variety and creativity (see the Milan coin I posted on this thread: https://goccf.com/t/479964)Here is my carrarino (with two of those carts  and IA for Iacobus of Carrara in the corners of the cross):   I'm particularly fond of the types where the patron saint holds a model of a church or the city. In this case I suspect the saint is holding a model of the abbey church of Santa Giustina where his relics lie. Edited by tdziemia
06/08/2025 07:44 am
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Valued Member
United States
108 Posts |
Very cool, tdziemia! Thanks for sharing.
Just to confirm, it sounds like I should change this post title to be "Francesco I" correct? If so, I'll do that for searchability and accuracy.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Quote:
it sounds like I should change this post title to be "Francesco I" correct? Probably not needed. Francis in English, Francesco in Italian, and if the legend on the coin had been written in its entirety it would have been Franciscus. As written, the legend looks like .FRACISI. DC . RRARIA. or DE . RRARIA. That spelling is off from the example in the Numista photo, but appears to match a photo in MEC 14 (#923). We've discussed out here that the artisans probably hadn't much or any education back then. It's a reasonably rare type, with only 7 examples on acsearch that I could find (fewer than one per year), and none of them with the P sigle left of the saint. Here are some recent sales: https://www.numisbids.com/sale/9086/lot/?lot=452https://www.numisbids.com/sale/8528/lot/?lot=287https://www.numisbids.com/sale/5572/lot/?lot=274 Edited by tdziemia
06/09/2025 09:14 am
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Valued Member
United States
108 Posts |
All very interesting. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge.
Yes, the interesting thing was that I couldn't find an *exact* match anywhere, which prompted me to inquire here. Appreciate you helping me understand the coin a bit better.
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Replies: 9 / Views: 882 |
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Posted 06/07/2025 08:08 am
