What is the Oldest coin with a year date on it?

earlwbollinger

What cojn do you think would be the oldest coin with a recognizable Arabic Numeral year date on it?
The Gregorian Calendar wasn't really stable until about 1582, so I don't think we would see dates based on it before then.
Some of the Spanish silver coins had two digit year dates on them in 1598 where they merely put "98" on the coins.
Does anyone know of any older coins with dates on them?
This Spanish 1608 Gold Escudo is pretty close to that.

1jester

I've got a number of silver coins from the 1500s, from Poland.

I believe that 1486 Tyrolian Thaler was the first dated coin, with one exception: a Danish silver denarius dated 1234. Somewhere there's a thread or two about it.

Nice Escudo!!

Placid

I have a 1596 Ducat.

JamminJ

Look for some Pedro the Cruel (of Spain) coins. I think they may be the only ones with a date in the 1300s.

-JamminJ

cacheman

"with one exception: a Danish silver denarius dated 1234. Somewhere there's a thread or two about it."

And my Swedish buddy owns it. I was privledged enough during my visit in April to go to his safety deposit box and actually hold this coin. I believe that there are only two known examples with the other in a museum somewhere. I will contact him and try and get the full scoop. I do recall that he said he had bought it at a very cheap price from a dealer in Malmo who didn't know what he had. It is worth megabucks though....

DominusDeus

From one of my posts:

Well, this is true. The oldest "dated" coin is dated as "year 1" viz. 494 BC. I meant, however, a coin dated with the modern-ish year system. I'm pretty sure there are dated coins from the early Christian Era (in fact, one of my guinness books lists a Bishop of Roskilde coin of Denmark dated "MCCXXXIIII" (1234), though only about 6 are known). That's what I'm looking for, and I know old UK and Briton coins are a REALLY good source of this. Oldest dated US coin I know of are 1652 shillings. That right there is almost 150 years older than my oldest dated (1798 large cent).

And there's also this:

coachleonard

Boy, you people don't know anything! I see old copper coins with a star of david on them, with crystal
clear dates in the 1200's all the time!

Bruce

I have often wondered how old of a coin you could find with a date, as I restrict mine to dated coins.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Boy, you people don't know anything! I see old copper coins with a star of david on them, with crystal >>

canadiancoinguy

If you're looking for a cheap early dated coins, 1500's-1600's Eastern Europe is often available for <$10.

lordmarcovan

Look for Hungarian silver denars. I've had 'em back to 1552. And in decent F-VF grades, for less than twenty bucks. They're small, but so what? They're silver, 500+ years old, and carry a 4-digit date.

sumnom

If you remove this arabic numeral restriction then there are plenty of dated coins from China that go WAAAAY back.

MrEureka

JamminJ

Here are some tid bits from The Dated European Coinage Prior to 1501 by Albert R. Frey.

The earliest dated coin in the book are Gold Solidus of Muslim Spain, with the earlies of these dates AH93 or 711 A.D., with another around with the year AH98 (716 A.D.).

Another early dated coin is the silver ducat of Roger II, Count of Sicily, dated 1140 A.D.

Alfonso XIII issued gold pieces with arabic inscription with dates corresponding to 1185 A.D. The actual date was 1233 of the Spanish Era which measures time from Augustus' conquest of Spain.

Alfonso's successors let the practice of dating coins lapse until Pedro the Cruel came along, as I mentioed above. His are dated Spanish Era 1398 = 1360 A.D.

The book is vague but apparently there are some dated Islamic imitations of Byzantine coins out there as well, with equivilent dates of the 7th century AD.

-JamminJ

291fifth

One roman coin, an antoninianus I believe, carried the date of Year of Rome 1000. (Obviously in roman numerals.) This would have been issued in AD 247 if my calculations are correct. So far as I know this was the only Roman coin to carry a specific date based on the year of Rome dating system. Correct me if I'm wrong.

earlwbollinger

One roman coin, an antoninianus I believe, carried the date of Year of Rome 1000
I think I have one of those in my collection.
It commemerates the Roman Empire being 1,000 years old, I've have to go look for it see what it has on it again.
I think they made oodles of these suckers too.

DominusDeus

Just a bump. Am wondering if some of you fine folks can point me in the right direction for ebay stores (or trusted dealers), good online stores, and specific coins (i.e.: Specific country, denomination and common dates) to search for (since I know very little on foreign coins).

Would like a short list of common cheap (and authentic) 4-digit dated 1800's, 1700's, 1600's, 1500's, and possibly older (if it gets old enough, and still uber cheap, roman numeral dates are cool, too) foreign coins, with a general price for a common, run of the mill example. You can probably tell that I'm looking for one, maybe two examples of dated coins from each century, as far back as I can go, without spending an arm, a leg and half a nut.

earlwbollinger

One roman coin, an antoninianus I believe, carried the date of Year of Rome 1000. (Obviously in roman numerals.) This would have been issued in AD 247 if my calculations are correct. So far as I know this was the only Roman coin to carry a specific date based on the year of Rome dating system. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It;s a little difficult to make out but Constantine II or Constans had these coins minted from about 330 to 346AD.
It has Romulus and Remus suckling on a she wolf on the reverse. This is VAN Meter #39 on page 121 of his book.
Unfortunately they didn't date them. The coins were made for their celebrations of Rome being 1100 years old based on something like 748 BC.
Actually they had founded Contantinople as the capital of the Eastern Empire and the coins were more for commemerating that event.
Constans and his other brother united in a revolt to take over the empire from Constantine II and won.
I tried but just couldn't get the pictures to work well on this one.

earlwbollinger

Now this Roman coin from Trajan 98-117AD can be dated at 109AD. It is a silver Denarius minted in 109AD to commemerate the completion and opening of the
Via Trajan Highway. It says SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI VIA TRAIANA on the reverse. Standard Ceasar stuff on the obverse.
Van Meter #39 page 121. Unfortunately it still doesn't havea date on it. But it is pretty neat anyway.

earlwbollinger

Just a bump. Am wondering if some of you fine folks can point me in the right direction for ebay stores (or trusted dealers), good online stores, and specific coins (i.e.: Specific country, denomination and common dates) to search for (since I know very little on foreign coins).

That's a tall order. I think you'll just have to look at all sources you can think of for these "dated" coins.
The price can vary greatly depending on the coin and it's scarcity and collector interest.
1500-1600 Eastern Eurpoean dated coins may be easier to get pricewise.
Coin shows would be a good place. Several dealers make the rounds with ancient and Medeival coins for sale.