Jester's Challenge #5

1jester

Welcome, Darkside Collectors (and all others who wish to participate)!!!

Inspired by others here on the Darkside forum, including Severo, Rublevik, Ajaan, Cacheman, Aethelred, Mongoose, Wybrit, LordMarcovan, Askari, Shirohniichan and many others, I'd like to start what I hope will turn into a great learning experience for all of us. The above-mentioned members, and many others, have done a formidable job in sharing with us many fascinating and historically important coins. Since that's one of the greatest pleasures to me, I'd like to try to follow in that time-honored tradition and submit for your pleasure and entertainment some world coins I've come across in my short lifetime.

I will pick out a coin on a regular basis, and post it along with the challenge to you to name the coin, its provenance, denomination, metallic content, mintage, any distinguishing characteristics or noteworthy features, and its value. The more information, the better. I'd like as many people as possible to participate, regardless of how little knowledge you might have on the subject. I appreciate comments on every aspect of the coin, including its history, or its role in human history, or info on similar coins in its series, etc. I myself don't assume to know 1/100 of what you collectively know, hence my challenge to all of you to share your knowledge with the rest of us. Hopefully this exercise will encourage thought, discussion, and primarily more friendship.

Thanks for your participation!!!

Here goes the fifth selection:

kuhli

Gonna take a stab at this as being an early Swedish coin under Christina. Or maybe Polish, as it was a dual monarchy at that time, wasn't it? I can make out the Christina D G R S (Dei Gratia Regina Sweden), and also the Livonia on the reverse. These are from a period I am curious about, but know nothing about.

Looking closer at the reverse legend, does it say solidus??

1jester

Right on all counts, Kuhli! Unfortunately we'll never know the date of the coin because it's off center (I'm not an expert on these coins, in fact, and I'm not positive that they carried dates at all!). But the error adds to its coolness factor in my book, along with its strong AU condition. I believe solidus refers to a basic monetary unit, like a penny. Later solidi are also called shillings (szelag in Polish), and copper ones were also known as boratynki. This is silver, but obviously with a very high copper content due to "inflation".

Rublevik

Okay, now this is a real shot in the dark.

Bizarre off-centre strike (from a rocker press?). Silver, small denomination (not sure what).

Visible legends mention "Livonia" and "Christina" (?). I think this dates the coin to about 1650 & refers to Christina of Sweden (Livonia being the Baltic states won in the early 1600s from Poland by Sweden).

Fabulous condition!

GDJMSP

The coin was made by the use of a roller die. It was one of the earlier methods used to mass produce coins. A picture of such a die may be seen here -

roller die

The earliest I know for sure that these type of dies were used was the early 1600's. They may have been used even before that.

DCH

KM#21, Riga/Livonia. Struck from 1635-1654.

1jester

Thanks for the new info, folks. I've seen a few strips of "planchet" material (for roller dies) in the British Museum and also strips of metal of coins that had already been punched, but not yet cut out. They looked cool.

1jester

ttt