Anyone here collect medieval coins? General discussion

Donovan · February 25, 2004 10:46AM

If so, what area do you collect and what reference books do you have.

coinkat · February 25, 2004 10:56AM

Welcome Donovan...

I have very few medieval coins and no decent reference books.

Aethelred · February 25, 2004 11:07AM

I collect medieval English coins. I use Coincraft, Spink and North as references.

ajaan · February 25, 2004 11:10AM

I collect medieval English coins

Donovan · February 25, 2004 11:17AM

<< <i>I collect medieval English coins. I use Coincraft, Spink and North as references. >>

I'm familiar with Spink and North but what's the Coincraft book called?

Also, for you English collectors, do you specialize? What and why? I've often thought it might be fun to try and get one penny from every English mint irrespective of ruler. I believe it would be around 100 or so coins. I've also thought it might be interesting to try for a complete collection by moneyer from one specific mint. What are your thoughts?

By the way, I don't currently collect medieval but I consider it to be the single most underrated area of numismatics as a whole. Any thoughts on that?

rhound1977 · February 25, 2004 11:21AM

I know so little about medieval coins, would that fall into the term of ancients? I do own one coin called celtic wheel coin, a forum giveaway win from Pyton. I just purchased two books on ancient coins in hopes of some enlightenment...

The books I got are;

Ancient coin collecting, Sayles
Ancient Greek & Roman Coins, Klawans & Bresset

Aethelred · February 25, 2004 11:22AM

The ways to collect English coin are almost endless. Both of your goals would be lofty ones, but that would be a hell of a collection to watch grow!

coinkat · February 25, 2004 11:28AM

Earlier I forgot to mention that I have and can recommend both Spink and Coincraft for coins of England. Spink produced other catalogs as well.

python · February 25, 2004 11:55AM

Collect mainly English. I use Spink, Coincraft, North and Medieval English Groats by Ivan Buck.
I also have about a dozen or so from Germany, France and Italy. But not much for reference in that area.

Wondo · February 25, 2004 12:27PM

What years would be considered medieval - please pardon my historical ignorance.

Donovan · February 25, 2004 12:57PM

<< <i>What years would be considered medieval - please pardon my historical ignorance. >>

Medieval is generally considered to be from A.D. 500-1500 and primarily Western/Central European, for instance, Byzantine coins are from that era but not generally considered medieval. I personally consider medieval to mean European coinage from the introduction of the French Denier, late 8th century, which is in my opinion the first true medieval coin, until the introduction of the testoon (shilling) sized pieces, late 15th century, which is the beginning of modern coinage denominations. I consider the coinage of the late 5th century to 8th century to be Dark Age European coinage, rather than Medieval, as it was immatative of Roman coinage in the post Roman world. I hope that wasn't too complicated.

Refrema · February 25, 2004 12:58PM

I do have a few medieval coins, Viking ones from England and Ireland. I need to learn more about them, but it always seems that there are too many other topics to research. I also have Danish and Norwegian from the 1400s and later.

As far as books, I have Spinks, No 32 of the Sylloge of British Isles, and several Danish books for coins from the 11th Century to date.

My Viking ships take lots of time and money and the Swedish plate money is also eating into my time. The way it is going, more things turn up every day, so that I may never finish with all I have started.

Bob

1jester · February 25, 2004 2:41PM

"I don't currently collect medieval but I consider it to be the single most underrated area of numismatics as a whole. Any thoughts on that?" --Donovan

I agree with you 100%---they are way underpriced in my opinion.

I collect a few medieval coins, from France, England, Germany but mostly Poland. Also, coins into the 16th century are very interesting.

Donovan · February 25, 2004 11:02PM

<< <i>I do have a few medieval coins, Viking ones from England and Ireland. I need to learn more about them, but it always seems that there are too many other topics to research. I also have Danish and Norwegian from the 1400s and later.

As far as books, I have Spinks, No 32 of the Sylloge of British Isles, and several Danish books for coins from the 11th Century to date.

My Viking ships take lots of time and money and the Swedish plate money is also eating into my time. The way it is going, more things turn up every day, so that I may never finish with all I have started.

Bob >>

That's neat. I'd like to hear more details about your Danish and Viking coins. I'm really only familiar with English medieval but Cnut would qualify as Danish I suppose, do you have an interest in his reign?

coachleonard · February 26, 2004 12:31AM

Ever since I sent off for two medieval French deniers some years ago, I've been hooked on medievals-- mostly French and British. When I first got those two deniers, I couldn't get all that kings, castles, knights, etc imagery out of my head. I also like Crusader pieces when I can get an affordable one.

BigAlan · February 26, 2004 6:15AM

I only have two, 14th century Venice. I think I paid about 25¢ each from a junk box. It took me 40 years to find out what I had.")

coachleonard · February 26, 2004 7:28AM

There is a dealer in NY called Alex Malloy who deals a lot in ancient and medieval coins. If you make a decent purchase or two from him, you just might be a recepient of his quarterly catalogues -- and those
catalogues are a FANTASTIC resource for identifying medieval coins from all parts of the world. I'm not sure if he still puts those out, but he did at least through 2000 or so.

Anyone here collect medieval coins? General discussion

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