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 Replies: 28 / Views: 2,599 |
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
Inspired by the Imperfect and Beautiful thread... how about we see some peoples' damaged-yet-beautiful coins? I'll start out with an exceedingly rare 1493 Bartgroschen from Saxony. It was once holed (and judging by the wear, extensively worn) before breaking.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
216 Posts |
I specialize in late 15th century coins called briquets (Dutch: vuurijzer, which translates to 'fire iron'). When a rare 1479 double briquet from Holland was offered for sale, I couldn't pass it up -- even if it was a tad bit damaged. (I barely notice the hole!)  |
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
In the world of hammered medieval coins, sometimes a damaged coin is the best a person can do. Even if one is wealthy enough to afford the best example of a coin, some can be of such high rarity that a non-damaged example won't appear for public sale during their lifetime. I've been casually putting together an English monarch set for some years, but many early issues are outside of my price range. I was ecstatic when I had the opportunity to acquire a damaged-but-kind-of-repaired Matilda from the 1980 Coed-y-Wenallt (Wales) hoard.  It's difficult to see in the pictures, but this coin was found broken in half. It was glued together by the museum prior to its sale by Spink. This example is actually the rarer S-1326b; NGC doesn't offer variety attribution for Matilda. |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5172 Posts |
Beautiful coins @samoth! Looking forward to seeing more of your items in the Walking Back from 1600 thread (and in the How Far Back thread, in a few months). ...I feel like it would be awkward to not post a fitting coin, but I'm having trouble selecting a sufficiently worthy pre-1600 example. (And whatever I might post is unlikely to come close to your beauties.) I'll try to look through my non-CCF photo archives, but for now you can look at this crumbling Otacilia Severa denarius - which was probably more handsome in its better days, but honestly still looks kinda neat, with the missing parts outlining Otacilia's head.   |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7933 Posts |
Quote:
I'll start out with an exceedingly rare 1493 Bartgroschen from Saxony. It was once holed (and judging by the wear, extensively worn) before breaking. Nice coin! I like that the obverse is pretty evenly worn, the reverse nearly so, too. All the details are easily seen even if a bit faint here and there. I've got no lack of damaged medieval goods. I think of 'em as well used, and now well-loved (by me). |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
901 Posts |
my most holey coin  Magnentius from Arles |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Maybe this doesn't quite fit "technically", as the hole was advertised as a planchet defect rather than damage. From a time when the later medieval states of the Low Countries (Flanders, Brabant, etc) had not yet completely formed, this denier of the Counts of Leuven, struck in Brussels circa 1050:   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Closer to samoth's first examples, only 4 examples of this 1494 Hildesheim sechsling have hit the market in the last 10 years. Three of the four have cracks or other problems (so at least I'm in good company). One of my favorite dated 15th century coins in my collection.   Edited by tdziemia
06/23/2025 07:22 am
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Moderator
United States
187565 Posts |
Great examples!  |
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Valued Member
United States
51 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Not sure what happened to create the crease on this one, but assuming PMD. I figured the legends were all pretty readable, and the price was right. Casimir the Great quartnik struck in Lviv shortly after it (current Ukraine) became part of Poland in 1349. Interestingly, Kopicki gave this coin an R5 rating (1995), but I can count over a dozen sales a year at Polish auctions each of the last 5 years, so maybe there was a hoard found in the last 30 years?   Obv: Crowned gothic K inquadrilobe. REGIS POLONIE K Rev: Rampant lion MONETA DOI RVCSIE Edited by tdziemia
06/24/2025 12:42 pm
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Moderator
United States
187565 Posts |
Very interesting! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
870 Posts |
Here's my Galba that somebody drilled a hole in.  |
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Moderator
United States
187565 Posts |
Quote:
Here's my Galba that somebody drilled a hole in. Took me a few seconds to see the hole.  Nice example! |
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
There's nothing wrong with a small hole, especially if it's not noticeable and not in a really obvious place like the dead center of the coin!  Edit: 1555 English shilling, Philip & Mary, S-2501, N-1969. Another monarch where nice, well-struck coins are a bit out of my price range. This one's NGC VF (details, obviously), but a beautiful example that's struck up well. Edited by samoth
07/08/2025 7:38 pm
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Moderator
United States
34393 Posts |
Ugh, so many of my coins could be posted on this thread... Here is a Half Schwartgroschen dated 1482 that was bent at one time. Later on, someone tried to flatten it back out and now the two pieces are just barely held together:   "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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Replies: 28 / Views: 2,599 |
Posted 06/21/2025 10:14 pm
