~*~*~ Lord Marcovan's Hungarian Denars ~*~*~
lordmarcovan
Posts: 43,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've always thought these were appealing coins, for their early dates, interesting designs, and sheer affordability. True, they're small, and often crudely struck as is fairly typical for hammered silver coins of the period, but otherwise they've got just about everything going for them. So I've decided to see how far I can go towards assembling a date set of them. If I can find attractively toned examples, so much the better.
Photobucket album
Photobucket slideshow
A brief overview with some rough valuation ranges (Coinquest.com.)
"The Coins and Kings of Hungary" by David P. Ruckser (From numismatas.com. A bit more in-depth history. May be slow to load because it's a 147-page PDF! The dated denars that are the focus of this collection start around page 106.)
My initial "exploratory" inquiry about collecting these (CU forum thread from May, 2014- a year before I actually began.)
1505-KH
1516-KG
1519-KG
1520-KG
1525-KG
1526-BA
1527-LK
1547-KB
1565-KB
1567-KB
1569-KB
1572-KB
1574-KB
1576-KB
1579-KB
1580-KB
1581-KB
1586-KB
1592-KB
1638-KB
1640-KB
Photobucket album
Photobucket slideshow
A brief overview with some rough valuation ranges (Coinquest.com.)
"The Coins and Kings of Hungary" by David P. Ruckser (From numismatas.com. A bit more in-depth history. May be slow to load because it's a 147-page PDF! The dated denars that are the focus of this collection start around page 106.)
My initial "exploratory" inquiry about collecting these (CU forum thread from May, 2014- a year before I actually began.)
1505-KH
1516-KG
1519-KG
1520-KG
1525-KG
1526-BA
1527-LK
1547-KB
1565-KB
1567-KB
1569-KB
1572-KB
1574-KB
1576-KB
1579-KB
1580-KB
1581-KB
1586-KB
1592-KB
1638-KB
1640-KB
0
Comments
of these denars that you will ever have the pleasure to set eyes upon. The
first 7 are truly well preserved with awesome strikes and planchet quality.
The rest of the group are superior examples for their dates. As I have
mentioned in previous postings the dates after 1570 have horrible quality
issues. Will you be adding to your date run, if so please keep us posted.
As for the values given by Coinquest.com, I would gladly pay those prices
and more on the dates after 1560.
Lordmarcovan, Very nice and well done!!! I really do like the toning!!
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
WNC Coins, LLC
1987-C Hendersonville Road
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wnccoins.com
World Collection
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German States Collection
Jeff
I love the history, the toning and the SILVER!
<< <i>Lordmarcovan and forum members, These are some of the nicest examples
of these denars that you will ever have the pleasure to set eyes upon. The
first 7 are truly well preserved with awesome strikes and planchet quality.
The rest of the group are superior examples for their dates. As I have
mentioned in previous postings the dates after 1570 have horrible quality
issues. Will you be adding to your date run, if so please keep us posted.
As for the values given by Coinquest.com, I would gladly pay those prices
and more on the dates after 1560.
Lordmarcovan, Very nice and well done!!! I really do like the toning!! >>
Tibor- since you mentioned your long experience with these in my earlier thread (when I was still just thinking about collecting them and hadn't taken the plunge yet), I have considered you my "go to" expert on these. Because of that, and your experience with early-dated coins in general, I consider your comments above to be high praise indeed! Yes, I plan to add to the date run. I haven't yet decided whether or not I will cut off at 1600 or not. I do already have two 1600s-dated pieces I got from the same source as these initial sixteen pieces I posted above. I was very pleased with both the quality of the coins and the very low prices I was able to snipe them for in the eBay auctions. Now the only thing is waiting for the shipment from Slovenia to arrive safely. I have confirmation that it has shipped. I will probably add them in ones and twos from now on out, rather than a dozen or more at a time, but you never know- I might find an appealing bulk lot. I already ended up with a nice duplicate 1580 so I made that the giveaway prize in the May "Darkside Challenge" contest. I'm looking forward to playing with these as some "nice cheap fun" while I'm in between larger purchases for my core "Box of 20" collection.
While I have you here, what can you tell me about those mintmarks? I do not have the Huszár book yet, as most places I've seen it for sale, it's $150, and I'm not quite ready to spend that on a 36-year-old book that's written in a language for which I only have about 10% reading comprehension. I know the "KB" is Kremnitz, but what about those others? Guess I should do a bit more Googling, at the very minimum...
<< <i>Love the color on the 1527. But the 1526 has just the perfect fat little baby!
Jeff >>
Jeff- thanks for the nice comment. I like it when people's comments show that they actually took the time to go and look more closely at the individual coins, as you plainly did.
Thanks, everyone else. This is fun so far. I had fun making the banner, too. The blackletter font might be a bit more Germanic than Hungarian, but the cityscape I used as a background is from an old late-medieval woodcut of the city of Buda. I think it turned out pretty well.
are most prevalent: K-H, K-G, K-A. 1503 -1508 will have the K-H, the H is the initial
for Hans (John) Thurzo. 1509-1519 will have the mintmark K-G, G is the initial for
Gyorgy (George) Thurzo. 1520-1527 will have the mintmark K-A, A is the initial
for Andras (Andrew) Thurzo. Hans is a German name while the other two are Hungarian.
The K-B came into use in the early-mid 1520's. There are other mint marks with a
combination of letters and symbols. Many of these are worth a hefty premium,
i.e. regular m.m. $20, oddball m.m. $60+. The Thurzo family along with the Fugger family
controlled and had interests in many mines in this region
( where Austria, the Czech Republic, S.E. Germany and Hungary sort of come together).
The Fugger family is still a well known banking and financial family in Europe today.
I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. I of course will try to answer any
that you or the forum has. Once again KUDOS to you and your collection!!
I toyed with collecting these by date, and somewhere around here I have a binder with 20-30 examples, but I don't think I have any with colorful toning like those shown here.
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
I had to really "stretch" for the 1541. It set me back a whoppin' 21 bucks.
The other two were in the $11-13 range, which I am finding is not unusual.
Attractively toned silver coins almost 500 years old in the same pricerange as a pizza. Nothin' wrong with that, right?
Edit- aw, dammit. When I was putting that 1541 in the album, some tiny chips broke of the edge. Wouldn't you know it was right where the date was.
Anybody want a free (ND) 1541 denar?
This is how one of the pages looked before the recent additions:
It also may just be the earliest dated coin I've had in my years of collecting (though certainly not the oldest).
I think.
With the size of these things and me needing stronger reading glasses, who knows!