What would you do with this coin from the Crusades?

perro

My das bought me a bag of worthless (so I thought) world coins when I was a boy, but I was enamored with them--so many beautiful designs--so much creativity & variety. I cared not a stitch of their value. I just loved to look at them. Well, they ended up in a storage box--hadn't seen them in at least 32 years, and I did the same thing I did when I was a boy--I looked at every coin (and there were lots), and felt the same way as when I was a wee one. But I found one coin that was clearly very old, or even ancient. It had all the classic features of an old coin-- not entirely round, much asymmetry, etc., and it was clearly made of bronze. I surfed the Internet in order to find an expert on old and ancient coins. I found one and the e-mailed him several photos of the coin. He wrote me back and said that the coin was clearly from the time of the crusades, however, he had never come across that specific coin, but then again he told me that during the crusades there were countless different kinds of coins. I did a search on crusade coins, and found many similar ones -- there was typically a large cross on them.

I would like some of your opinions as to what you would do with the coin like this. My inclination is to keep it because of the hundreds of years of history in the coin -- and the beauty. What would you do? As an aside, one ancient coin, roughly 2400 years old is my favorite coin of all time. It is the Silver Athenian Owl Tetradrachm -- a real beauty! This is another coin that I would definitely keep.

So, what say Ye about the coin of the Crusades?

baccaruda

You should smite a muslim with it.

I'd keep that sucker - I love ancients.

perro

ROTFLOL I completely cracked up at your "smite a Muslim with it"!! I agree with you and I also love the ancients -- there are so many cool coins that it's unbelievable. And then you see the shape that they are in and it is astounding. How could something 2400 years old and buried in the ground come out and after being cleaned look like that? Amazing. BTW, what is your favorite ancient coin? Have you ever seen the Silver Athenian Owl Tetradrachm?

baccaruda

I'm not knowledgable on ancients, but what astounds me is that for the most part they're so affordable. You can get a coin that's older than Christ for often times a fraction of what modern coins cost. It's also fun to identify what you've got, read the history surrounding the period etc - although I haven't successfully identified any of mine yet.

Mine are mostly cheapies that I cleaned myself. The Ebay lots that you clean with olive oil and a toothbrush. Bought some other nice ones for not that much.

dddangerousdan

I'd keep it. got a pic for us??

DAN

baccaruda

One thing that is NOT fun about ancients is getting pictures of them. They usually end up looking like a brown slug.

XpipedreamR

Of course you should keep it.

coachleonard

Actually, many of the bronze crusader coins are scarcer/more valuable than the standard silver issues.
Some Crusader coins can be bought in the $15-$25 range, while others are worth a few hundred dollars.
I'd be curious to see a pic. You said it had a cross on one side? If the reverse shows a rectangluar structure with a kind of warped roof on top then I'd say it's a Jerusalem issue. I'd keep it-- the history that comes with such a coin is usually worth more (at least to me) than the money you'd get for it. Unless, of course,
it's a super rarity.

joeyuk

I would keep it as part of a group your dad had bought you and each time you marveled at them it would make you think of your dad and your childhood. Joe

perro

"I would keep it as part of a group your dad had bought you and each time you marveled at them it would make you think of your dad and your childhood. Joe "


"I'd keep it-- the history that comes with such a coin is usually worth more (at least to me) than the money you'd get for it".


Perro--I aggree with you all. I like the 2 quotes above. Concerning the link with my childhood & my father is even more important since my mom died of cancer when I was 8 & she was at the tender young age of 29--with 4 kids.

I'll still try to get pics. on the board tomorrow sometime--tonight we have company coming and there will not be the time.