How Far Back Can We Go? Ended At 1492 Waiting On 1491

Thanks everyone! It is fun to show these.

1673





Sweden
1673 2 Mark Charles XI. Mint mark "D".
Note the differences in the legends.
CAROLVS XI REX SVECIAE
CAROLUS XI REX SUECIAE

@bomndk - Very neat coin! I really like the artistic style on your 4 Marck!

That particular "V" is called a stonecutter's "U", because it's easier to carve straight lines than curved. Rarely seen on coins, but often on buildings, memorials and sometimes tombstones.

The lions are fantastic. Great looking ducatoon, Litotes!

t360, thank you! You will notice that is has the same characteristic as (one of) your very nice Swedish 1673 2 marks, in that it uses V instead of you in the text. An interesting side fact for mine: The type usually have "SVPREMVS", while mine has just "SVPREMV". I have no idea if this missing letter is common for the year 1671 or not.

mysilveryears, I have heard suggested that - in a time of strife - it was more important for Leopold to look imposing, like a ruler you wouldn't want to cross, than to look handsome.

Unbelieveable! Love that 1671 Ducatoon--- the coat of arms looks similar to the Maryland coat of arms.

Talk about good timing! This one arrived today. I'm going for at least one coin from every century to 400+ BC. Here's the 17th Century. Paleoguy

@x10loupe: I don't recall exactly what I paid for that 1671 because it came with a small group and my record keeping is spotty. If you do a quick ebay search under the World Coins category for 'Leopold 6 kreuzer' you will get more listings than most coin budgets will allow,
par example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUSTRIA-HUN...em1e687b9faa

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HUNGARY-SIL...em20b9a83565

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUSTRIA-LEO...em5ae31b1993

The availability of these medieval minors plus the many variations sort of makes ya wonder whether some eastern european entrepreneurs aren't turning them out in well equipped garages..

There are also a fair amount of big, impressive silver coins available from this era. The thaler was in full flower during this period. Once the popularity of that coin took hold, owing to the discovery of productive German silver mines, most of the European rulers decided to come out with their own versions of the ~38-40 mm coins. The larger flans allowed for some amazingly intricate designs. These coins have more eye appeal imho than -almost- anything made today. Again, although the price tier is a good bit north of the kreuzers, some of the big medieval coins seem very affordable when compared to similar size USA coins that are almost 200 years newer. Have you shopped for any pre-1800 dollars lately?
/end-ramble