Jester's Challenge #26

1jester

Welcome to Jester's Challenge, an interactive history lesson.

Inspired by many others here on the Darkside forum, I'd like to present what I hope will turn into a great learning experience for all of us. Many members on this World and Ancient Coin Forum have done a formidable job of 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 1/1000 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 most importantly, more friendship.

Thanks for your participation!!!

Here goes the twenty-sixth selection:





diameter: 37 mm
weight: 12.90 g

wybrit

That's a pretty scary coin there.

It looks like some anti-religious words, although I don't know much about Latin.

Wasn't this the subject of a thread about six months ago, 1jester?

1jester

Wybrit, GOOD MEMORY!!!

All you have to do now is do a search under "tokens" and you can bring up some more info!

wybrit

I was too lazy to search it, but now I have and here it is!

secretsquirrel

Very interesting piece. I would like to get me one of those if i can ever find one. What would the price tag be on them.

1jester

Good job, Wybrit!

The medal is from the 17th Century, somewhere in Germany. To my knowledge, nothing else is known about it. I understand it is an anti-Pope medal, quite possibly associated with the Reformation.



edited to add: SS, I don't know if there is another surviving example in the world.

Aethelred

It has been a long time since those Latin classes that I almost didn't pass, but I think the first one says something about the evil clergy preverting something?

wybrit

Check the link above.

Aethelred

I am not sure that the translation in the linked thread is correct, but being too lazy to get off my duff and look it up, I'll not argue too much.

I think it reads something along the lines of "Evil priests prevert the truths of the faith."

But then I was a C- Latin student!

wybrit

ttt

lordmarcovan

Dang... here it is again on a resuscitated thread, and I just realized that Jester's icon piece has two faces (or should I say, four?).

Duh.

All this time, my eyes picked out the jester's cap in the icon, and never noticed the other upside-down guy. Just goes to show you that you can look at something a kazillion times and still not really see it, until one day- POW!

The other side is more obvious. I could see both faces immediately.

Neat.

That's a fascinating piece. I found it interesting even before I noticed the extra faces. But I guess I never paid enough attention to it.

SYRACUSIAN

Steve27

I'm glad this thread was resuscitated, I found the following info on it:

"A medallion from the period of the Popish Plot - held upright it shows a picture of the Pope in the papal tiara - reversed the devil's face appears. The legend reads "Ecclesia perversa tenet faciem diaboli" - the church perverted (or turned around) has the devil's look."

1jester

Thanks for the info, Steve. Can you say roundabouts when the medal was produced?

Steve27

Here's info on the "Popish Plot" which indicates that it is probably from the 1673-1681 period. Does it look that old to you?

"The Test Acts, Titus Oates and the Popish Plot 1673 - 1681

In 1673, a Test Act was passed to try to help differentiate between Anglicans and Catholics. Public officeholders were required to swear an oath of allegiance (which recognised the monarch as the head of the Church of England) and accept communion by Protestant form. The intention of the Act was to exclude Catholics from public office. James, Duke of York (Charles II's brother and the future James VII and II), being Catholic, was forced to surrender his public office as admiral, as he would not take the oath.

In 1678, Titus Oates, an anti-Catholic protester, swore in court that he knew of a Catholic and French plot to murder the King and his Protestant supporters and place a Catholic government in their place. Opponents of the Duke of York exaggerated the fears and many Catholics were arrested and tried. The plot was little more than an invention but, during the height of the furore concerning it, a second Test Act was passed which required all members of the Houses of Commons and Lords to swear the oath and make an anti-Catholic declaration.

This time, the Duke of York was specifically exempted from the scope of the act. In Scotland, in 1681, Lauderdale's government imposed similar legislation but, on this occasion, not in regard to Anglicanism but in regard to the 1560 Presbyterian Settlement."

Steve27

Here's a link to the site which shows a picture of the token LINK.

MacCrimmon

Steve, you beat me too it......I'll go eat my chili cheese burrito now!!

1jester

Awesome info, Steve; thanks!!! Does the medal look like it's that old? Yes. It was listed in the auction catalog as having been minted then too, but in Germany. However, the medal looks exactly like the one in the link (a Puritan medal?). Now I'm even more intreagued!

MacCrimmon

Keep in mind that there was a large contingent of English/Scottish ex-pats who had been inhabiting Germany and Switzerland since the mid-late 16th century, i.e. the Geneva Bible etal., so a Germanic minting doesn't really surprise.

1jester

I understand there's a small but not insignificant contingent of ex-pat Scotsmen holding forth in the lands east of Germany, too....

spoon

bump

linking to thread asking ID on this medal

spoon

It looks like one of these sold at auction in Belgium last year for €620. Not positive if it is the same type and it seems this one is attached to something. See lot 33 here. (in French!)

Also, this page (in Italian!) has pictures of two examples, one with the Edmund Godfrey obverse. Tracking down Godfrey's cohorts might give some clues as to who it likely was that impressed this medal. In fact, this page attributes the Godfrey medal to George Bower, who it seems was a contemporary medallist. (1, 2, bio) I'd say this might be a proper (partial) attribution! BUT! alas.. it's probably not. The Godfrey version has the Pope's mouth closed and other features seem redrawn. So the Godfrey example is likely playing on an earlier medal. Which is what the Italian page kind of says, vaguely. All it says is that the satirical type was common to the time of the Restoration. And to make matters worse, it seems the second example on that page is from yet another die. The legend is entirely different (in position and lettering), the edge is beaded, and the cardinal's hat has a different texture.

And now we know that they exist in copper/bronze(?) too!

1jester

Fantastic research, Spoon! Thank you very much for bringing us closer to an attribution of this medal.

1jester

Lynch gave me this information: a very similar medal sold recently at Kuenker's auction 119/120 for 2000 Euro.



Thanks for the info, Lynch!

I will be selling this medal very soon on ebay.

Here it is, lot 695

Stork

Wowsers!!! Pretty cool thread resuscitation too!