Help with mystery ancient

TequilaDave

I've an ancient silver coin that I've tried in several venues to figure out where it came from or what it is. It's a very interesting looking coin but I can't seem to find anything that even compares to it. Its history with me is that I found it at the bottom of a large collection of US and foreign coins I purchased and there was nothing on the 2x2 indicating an origin. Hopefully someone here will recognize it. It is about the size of a dime, is seemingly made of silver although it is dark, it is not the brownish color in the photo that was taken with a bad white balance. It almost looks like someone wearing a mask, maybe an ancient Afican coin?
TIA

lordmarcovan

Ooh. I'm stumped.

What a great face that fella on the obverse has. The primitive way they engraved him has some real character. He's sort of clownlike and sort of skull-faced.

I am thinking European from the Dark Ages, maybe around the Anglo-Saxon/Viking era but not English. It looks a tad more early-medieval to me than ancient, but hey, what do I know?

There's enough detail there that somebody who knows their stuff should be able to ID this one. I'm relatively optimistic that you'll get an attribution in due time, once the right person sees it, but who knows?

Very interesting piece. I like it a lot.

CIVITAS

Best guess is German States: Bavaria. Silver Pfennig from about the 1300s.

lordmarcovan

I was sorta thinking in a similar vein- German States or Austria. Medieval.

1300s? I'll defer to his more knowledgeable guess. My wild guess was a bit earlier, as you noticed.

The word "bracteate" flashed through my brain when I saw the style of this piece, though of course it is not a bracteate.