1422 -1427 Henry VI hammered silver penny - annulate issue - pierced cross 1

1 in 2 quadrants

Obv + HENRICVSxREXxANGLIE

Rev - CIVI/TASLOND/DON

circa 10thC Anglo- Scandinavian harness cheek piece

2ndC Roman silver sent for ID - cleaned up now

2.94g, 16.76mm

1stC Roman silver sent for ID

2.94g, 16.76mm

If you believe in "good omens", this might well be a hint that this will be an exceptional season.  This denarius is scarce-to-rare and in demand as a "dynastic piece", portraying all three of the Flavians.  Vespasian issued it and the two figures seated on curule chairs on the reverse are Titus and Domitian.  This piece, from the mint at Rome (* see below), dates to relatively early in Vespasian's rule, c. 69-70.

The legends are "almost" clear to read now, if you know what you're looking for.  I trust that if you cook this one, the legends will become much more readable in general. The obverse - portrait of Vespasian - is: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG / the reverse, with the seated Caesars is: TITVS ET DOMITIAN CAESARES PRIN IVEN* - PrincipiI Iuventutis: "The Princes of Youth" (which was an official and titled position, it can also be read as "The young princes" which is just a description - Latin syntax does not depend on the order of words in a sentence so occasionally interpretation of quotes and inscriptions can be a bit ambiguous and when defining the original intent may be open to opinion.

References:
RIC vol II, i (new edition), Vespasian 6 (var - see note *) "rare", (25 in the old edition of vol II) ; RSC (Vespasian) 541b; SRCV 2403. 

* Something else which might be a bit ambiguous is the attribution to Rome.  The piece quoted by RIC has a reverse legend which ends in "..IV" rather than "...IVEN".  In fact, RIC II, i, does not quote the IVEN ending at all except in the footnotes. The IVEN ending, evidently, is associated with the mint at Lyon (Lugdunum) but is quoted only from a plated piece.  I need to check with the "Not In RIC" folks and see if this is a typo, or whether this is a significant, unpublished rarity.

Mark

PS - I had never looked at the "Not in RIC" site before and it turns out to be only for vols VII & VIII - I might run this one past Curtis Clay, although looking at the listings in the "old" RIC II I see the IVEN variety listed, so it may only be a typo or simple omission in the new RIC.

Post Medieval cast copper alloy single loop buckle frame.

1500-1650 AD

French copper- alloy Jetton 1380AD Obv Shield of France bearing three fleur de lys

Rev trefoil x 4 Ottery St Mary

4thC House of Constantine bronze sent for ID

This piece is a posthumous commemorative of the "Empress" Theodora, 2nd wife of Constantius I.  These were struck as part of the continuation of the large emission of Centenionales dating to the early period after the death of Constantine - 337-340 - by the 3 new Augusti:  Constantine II, Constans and Constantius II.  The coins in Theodora's honor were struck only at Trier, Rome and Constantinople and I believe the legend on the reverse - PIETAS ROMANA - was never used on the coins of any other member of the Imperial families, at least not in the"Æ" coinage.

Mark

Shewolf & Twins reverse which is typically found on the VRBS ROMA, City of Rome commemorative, reduced-module folles introduced around 330 AD

Sent to Mark for confirmation of ID

There's not all that much unusual about your VRBS ROMA city commemorative with the she-wolf and twins reverse, except that what's left of it has a nice, glossy patina.  It's from the mint at Trier: "TRP" in the exergue.  To tell whether this is part of the earlier or later runs of these, given the chipped edges, I'd need to have it in-hand (if I could tell at all) to try to see by the size and weight whether it's consistent with the module from the beginning of the series c. 330-333, from the middle of the series - 333-335 - or from the very end, c. 336-7 (by which time they had become considerably smaller).  Aside from that, there's nothing particularly unusual about it - it's part of the enormous combined emissions of billon Centenionales. (as the denomination is now being named by David Sear, whose conventions I tend to follow.) This huge combined issue began at the time of the dedication of Constantinople and ran until the death of Constantine in 337.  These were contemporaneous - in fact were part of the same overall series - as the very commonly encountered GLORIA EXERCITVS - soldiers flanking 1 or 2 standards types in the name of Constantine I and all the various Caesars, as well as the CONSTANTINOPOLIS city commemoratives.  

Mark

Stunning dated 1772 George III gold half guinea coin weight - should be 10s and 6 D for normal half guinea

Obv 10S 5D - Ten shillings and 5 pence - Ewer counter mark both sides

Ref Withers p 229 1998, O

3.87g, 19.25gr, should weigh 18gr

1300-10 Edward hammered silver farthing 0.21g,10.81mm - Type 28h

New issue circle both sides

Obv + EDWARDVS REX ANG

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Amazing double head strike 1430-34 Henry VI hammered silver groat - Pine cone Mascle issue - Initial mark cross potonce

Pinecone and mascle in reverse legend - satire stops - Ref North 1461

Obv HENRIC DI GRA REX ANGL Z FRANCE DNS HYB

Rev VIL/LA/ CALI/SIE - Calais Mint

3.63g, 28.7mm

1427- 1430 Henry VI hammered silver penny - mullets by crown- quatrefoil with pellet at centre of reverse cross - York mint - Archiepiscopal issue

Obv HENRICVS REX ANGLIE

Rev CIVI/TAS/EBO/RACI - York mint

Post Medieval cast copper alloy single loop buckle frame.

1500-1650 AD

A complete cast copper alloy buckle of post-medieval date. The buckle is a double loop asymmetrical shape

Circa 1575- 1700

1300-1310 Edward hammered silver penny - Class 10cf3

Obv EDWARR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVIAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

Very unusual 1272 Edward 1st hammered silver penny - reverse cross only completes on 3 segments - double strike - legend is a CIVI/TAS type but legend is blundered - not a sterling imitation

Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev - CIVI/TAS/ ??

1604-19 James 1st gold Angel coin weight - 2nd coinage, revalued

Obv Crown XI S

Rev Angel

1344 Edward III hammered silver penny - Florin issue

Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/DVN/OLME - Durham mint

1526 - 1544 Henry VIII hammered silver sovereign

penny - Star both sides, radiant star Obv only

CD besides shield - Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall

1604-19 James 1st gold Angel coin weight - 2nd coinage, revalued

Obv Crown XI S

Rev Angel

1272 Edward hammered silver penny -

Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

1344 Edward III hammered silver penny - Florin type - Cross 1

Obv EDWR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1310-14 Edward hammered silver penny - Class 11b

Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

April 1356 - June 1357 Edward III hammered silver half groat - Pre treaty series GA London

Annulet below bust - Fleurs in cusps and over crown

Obv EDWARDVS .REX.ANGLI FRANC

Rev - +POSV/VI.DEV/.ADIVT/OREM

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1481 -83 Edward IV hammered silver farthing

Obv EDWARD DI GRA REX

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1344 Edward III hammered silver penny - Florin type

Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1481 - 83 Edward IV hammered silver penny - Durham mint

Rose in centre of reverse cross

Obv EDWAR *****

Rev CIVI/TAS/ ???

Post medieval cast copper alloy buckle frame

Circa AD 1600 - 1699

Cast copper alloy trapezoidal shoe or knee buckle with concave sides

1660-1720

Post Medieval cast copper alloy single loop buckle frame.

1500-1650 AD

1300 - 1310 Edward Ist hammered silver penny - Type 10

Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1803 George III milled gold third guinea

2.83g, 17.27mm

10-40 AD Cunobelin gold qtr stater - sent to CCI for recording

1.33g, 12.82mm

1669 Manningtree - Carter Henry, surgeon (CHYRVRGEON) 'His halfpenny' hammered copper trade token

Volume II - 1319a Barber/Surgeon

1351-61 Edward III hammered silver penny - Pre treaty period

Obv EDWARDVS REX ***

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1 annulet in all 4 quadrants on rev

Addedomarus 45BC Celtic gold full stater - sent to CCI for recording & reported as potential addition hoard to museum

17.98mm, 5.57g

154mm x 54mm

13thC vessica seal matrix

Interesting impression of an open hand with two stars above reaching for a closed fist

Legend - EDEVM * TIMET

1586 Hans Krauwincel II Rose orb Jetton

HANNS KRAVWINCKEL IN NVRENB

Medieval book hinge and clasp

Druid's Head on Obverse of 1788 Anglesey Token Parys Mines

Copper Tokens
The copper tokens of Anglesey for the Anglesey Copper Company were among the first of the eighteenth century tokens to be issued. they were issued as pennies and halfpennies.
Obverse
The obverse shows a druid's head, surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves, without inscription:-
IRONMONGER BISHOPSGATE
LONDON

Reverse
The reverse shows a monogram or cypher P M Co for the Parys Mining Company, with the inscription:-
WE PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ONE PENNY
1788

5th Dragoon guards button

OR's - 1855-1922

A complete cast copper alloy buckle of post-medieval date. The buckle is a double loop asymmetrical shape

Circa 1575- 1700

Cast copper alloy buckle frame 1500 -1700

Addedomarus 45BC Celtic gold full stater - sent to CCI for recording & reported as potential addition hoard to museum

18.68mm, 5.61g

Early hammered silver coin - possibly IOAN Polish ? researching it

2.86g, 20.72mm

PORTUGAL. João IV, the Restorer, 1640-1656 AD. AR Half Tostão of 50 Reis of Lisbon, 1641. Five shields with fleurs in quadrants / Voided cross with numerals of date in quadrants

1770 21 shilling coin weight - Gold guinea

Obv S 21

1344 Edward hammered silver penny - Florin issue

Obv EDWAR R ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

Cast copper alloy double-looped sub-annular shoe or knee buckle

Circa 1650-1720

Superb 1649 Commonwealth lead trade weight

Obv Two commonwealth shields

1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross halfpenny

Rev ION/ENT - Bury St Edmunds mint - Alien moneyer

Cast copper alloy trapezoidal shoe or knee buckle with concave sides

1660-1720

1788 George III gold half guinea

Unknown type with *I* I on Obv instead of pellets

1321 Edward II English jetton - Bust type Class XI

Obv Edward bust with succession of * and I

Rev Long cross with pellets

Similar Ref Mitchiner 131 but with different legend

1667 Thomas Bradshaw, apothecaries of Harwich Essex hammered copper trade farthing

Ref Norweb 1285

1586 Hans Krauwincel II Rose orb Jetton

HANNS KRAVWINCKEL IN NVRENB

First shield shaped 12thC seal matrix I have seen found here - got to clean it up and do a wax impression yet

A copper alloy matrix with shield-shaped face and six-sided handle terminating in a rhomboid suspension loop with circular perforation. Device of a heraldic lion rampant

This shield-shaped matrix bears a heraldic lion rampant; does not imply that the owner used such a lion as his arms or, indeed, that he bore arms at all; many such matrices carry heraldic creatures.

Date from: AD 1200
Date to: AD 1400

1344 Edward hammered silver penny - Florin issue

Obv EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/ type

1208/9 King John hammered silver short cross penny - Class 6c

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev RAVF ON LVNDE

1669 Peter Pelle, baymaker of Colchester Essex hammered scopper trade farthing

Ref Norweb 1209a

1208/9 King John hammered silver short cross half penny - Class 6

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev ABEL.ON - Abel of London mint

1422 -61 Henry VI hammered silver half penny

Obv +HENRIC REX ANGLI

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Huge c10thC Anglo Scandinavian trade weight with runic inscription - one for the museum

The inscription on the weight seems to read YN[A?}HINAA:, which does not make much sense on a first reading. You could ask Prof. Norman Biggs

Dr Martin Allen

1464 Edward IV hammered silver half groat - Transitional Issue - quatrefoil by neck, spur under TOR on rev

Obv EDWARD DI GRA REX ANGL Z FRA

Rev CIVITAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

(working on this coin to ID)

What a great find our first ever tiny 1703 Anne milled silver penny and size comparision to half crown

Addedomarus 45BC Celtic gold full stater - sent to CCI for recording

17.70mm, 5.56g

Interesting group of rough 1stC Roman big Sestertius bronzes found in the corner of a new field by At Mike - could be a potential hoaird there ?? A couple have some detail so I will send them off to mark Lehman for an ID.

What you have likely found is a "lost purse", or a very small buried hoard.  Sestertii were one of the real "workhorse" denominations in circulation during the years the Romans were most active in Britain.  You find a lot of denarii (relatively speaking) because that is the sort of denomination which would be likely to be squirrelled-away as savings - a "store of value" for the average man who probably never saw a piece of gold change hands in his life.  It was the sestertii, dupondii & asses which really got the day-to-day work done.  I'm not all that sure what exactly is in ciculation in GB these days, 1967 having been the last time I visited, but in the US, I'd compare the larger Æ coins to the $20, $10 & $5 bills - it's nearly impossible to draw comparisons between actual buying-power value, of course, since so many items in the "market basket" were vastly more or less expensive than today, but the 5, 10 & 20 make for the same levels of multiples - an as being half a dupondius and a quarter of a sestertius, and the sestertius, in turn, being a quarter of the denarius (so it doesn't quite hold up all the way through) but the denarius would be more on the order of a $100 bill - a day's pay for a soldier or tradesman.  Maybe you'd take one with you if you were buying something major, but for day to day transactions, it was the large Æ's changing hands - buying a meal, modest lodging for the night, a mug of wine, etc, those sorts of things would be likely to be paid-for and priced in the Æ range. 

So this find of 8 sestertii together represented a little bit of wealth - a couple hundred dollars,say - but not a massive sum.  The group could have been lost as a purse by a normally solvent person and would have been missed, but would not, most likely, have been a total disaster.  Or perhaps a clumsy "cutpurse" might have stashed his most recent acquisition and never returned to find it, having been caught on a subsequent foray into the marketplace...

We can make up scenarios for this sort of sum of money fairly easily, since it is a comprehensible sum in comprehensible units the cognate of which we probably have in our own wallets (or would have if not quite so much of our commerce were conducted with plastic).

In my opinion, the 1st example looks as though it might be a youthful portrait of Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius and his successor -
This is a youthful portrait of Commodus:  http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album95/ML_01_Commodus_Minerva_sest
He grew a beard later on, but he was only a teen as seen here.

While it might also be a younger portrait of Hadrian - before he cultivated his beard -
http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album92/13_Hadrian_Sest_Felicitas 
(Unfortunately I don't have a higher-quality example  of portrait for Hadrian in Æ in this early, nearly beardless era)

 the hair on your piece appears to be treated in the very curly style seen in M. Aurelius' and Commodus' portraits - see below for a Caesar-era M. Aurelius sestertius -
http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album94/M_Aurel_Caes_Virtvs_Sest1 but the profile doesn't seem to match

Your 2nd piece is, well, a good bit less easy to try to match - there is a portrait there - there seems not to be any beard (which pretty much rules out Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius as Augusti) the head doesn't have the "bowling-ball" aspect of Trajan's portraits.  I don't think it's one of the pre-adoptives (Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba or Vitellius - definitely not a Flavian) So I guess we have pretty much the same pool of possibilities to draw from.  A very early Hadrian or M. Aurelius - although both were almost never shown completely beardless - or a young Commodus.

That's about the best I can do, given the small amount of info available - these pieces were likely minted sometime in the 2nd century.  The relatively stable fiscal  and political situation in the 2nd century also fits for a "working" purseful of sestertii.  They circulated long enough to often be worn almost smooth in this era, meaning there was never a good reason for them to be hoarded on any widespread basis.

Mark

Post Medieval cast copper alloy single loop buckle frame.

1500-1650 AD

Interesting unrecorded 1422 shield of France type Jetton not in Mitchener

3 Lis in a shield with what appears to be snakes above and to sides of shield

Obv + AVE MARIA + GRACIA

1272 Edward 1st hammered silver penny

Obv EDW *** ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVITAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

1377-99 Richard II hammered silver half penny - Type 1b(ii)

Obv RICARD'xREX'xANGL

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

14.17mm, 0.52g

1422 shield of France type Jetton

3 Lis in a shield

1247 Henry III hammered silver half penny- Class III

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev NIC/OLE/ - Moneyer Nicole

1247 Henry III hammered silver half penny

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev DAV/ICO/ - Moneyer David of London mint

4th/5thC Roman silver coin - sent for ID

12.52mm,0.67g

Facinating medieval find - Looks like Jetton used as a type of mount or brooch.

Researching the books

1501-1521
Venetian Soldino hammered silver coin 0.26g,12.08mm

Rev: LAVS TIBI SOLI (Thee Alone be Praised). Haloed figure of Christ holding a cross.

Obv: LE LAV DVX S M V (Leonardo Lauredan, Doge. St Mark of Venice.) Doge kneeling before Saint Mark.

1300-10 Edward 1st hammered silver penny - Class 10

Obv + EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev VILL/SCIE/DMV/NDI- Bury St Edmunds mint

1300-10 Edward 1st hammered silver farthing - New issue with inner circles both sides - Closed C Type 28

Obv +EDWARDVS REX

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON

Started new page

Sept 2013 Finds Page 2