My New Favorite Coin In My Collection

Congrats on your find! I too love these 16th century coins

This one is minted in Vienna. The CA symbol is made by mintmaster Andrea Cetto (1660-65). It has Krause nr. #1170. Value is listed as $20 in F and $40 in VF. It is made of silver. Leopold I was ruler at the time, his reign lasting from 1657 to 1705. He is famously labeled as "Hogmouth" due to his characteristic appearance.

Several other 15 Kreutzers were made in Austria in the same time, it is not altogether easy to tell the different ones apart.

Krause #1186 was minted in Graz. The CA symbol directly below the Eagle places the coin in Vienna.

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopol...oman_Emperor
interesting piece
Peter in Oz

Napoleon31ft You say "Becuase it doesn't look like the one pictured for #1170" - you are of course 100% correct. But I think you need to think about how coins of this era were made and what a book like Krause is.

In the 1600's and in fact in many countries until very recently coin dies were made individually by hand.

Today we are used to coins that are identical. Small die differences are SIGNIFICANT and valuable, but 100 years ago that was not the case at all. No two dies were identical and die varieties are usually NOT significantly higher in price. They may be much rarer but value and rarity are not the same. The Krause reference gives a "Typical" picture and the value of the most common varieties.

That is a big part of the allure of collecting older series. Specialists take years doing die by die identifications to determine rarity of the varieties. Overton's book on Bust Half Dollars of the US is one case. But a similar book could be written for the Austrian 15 Kreuzer coins or for any other issue. If every die originally used was included such a book would likely be a LARGER book than Overton's because the number of dies was likely much higher. However, survival numbers come into play so a complete list is impossible. The fun is finding as many varieties as possible.

On the dies made for Leopold you can actually see the work of an individual artist. The die engraver had to effectively draw the King's portrait on each die - backwards. Some engravers were better than others. I love to look at coins like this under a microscope and hunt for slips of the engraving tool. Thousands of small cuts went into making a die and perfection is simply not human.

So look at the coin - there are clues about how the die was made and how the coin itself was made. From the pictures you posted you can determine at least:
1. How the die was produced.
2. How the planchet was made.
3. How the coin was made.
4. Where the coin was made.
5. When the coin was made.

Most collectors are only interested in the last TWO items.

Thank you swamperbob for the info. I'm not used to collecting coins like this one so I dont know that much.

I would say so.
I just got an 1894-S yesterday