New Purchase Papal Testones

STLNATS

I was delighted to hear that I'd snagged a couple of new baroque coins in the CNG auction that ended earlier this week. Baroque can be defined as various ways, but I consider it to be second half of the 17th century, ending with the death of Innocent XII in 1700. In many ways this is the apex of traditional papal coinage, IMHO of course, with a wonderfully diverse and skillfully executed range of designs and themes.

Some of the most interesting coins were issued under Innocent XI, who reformed the coinage in July, 1684. He standardized the designs of many of the coins and none is a better example than the testones issued from 1684 to his death in 1689. All had the same basic design: papal coat of arms on the obverse, and the legend Melius Est Dare Quam Accipere ('tis better to give than to receive) on the reverse. Within these parameters the die cutters had amazing latitude in executing their designs, and Muntoni's La Monete Dei Papo e Degli Stati Pontifici lists no less than 90 unique types that were issued during these 5 years. I have 25 or so thus far including the two from CNG. What makes these particularly interesting to me is that they are dated on the obverse, above the coat of arms in tiny little numbers. Only 5 of the 90 listings had obverse dates, and frankly I was unaware of this interesting dating until I saw these so I was willing to "reach" a bit for these. Its always fun to learn something new about a series you thought you knew!

Scans are from CNG's listings.

STLNATS

I thought I had others of this series imaged, but this is the only one I could find, at least could find where it was supposed to be. Its also a 1684, but dated, more typically, on the reverse. Sorry for the small size of the image. Also by the way, these are about the size of a U S half dollar, but thinner, and weigh ~9 gms, more or less.

EVillageProwler

These are very nice. Congrats. CNG graded these "superb EF", so it looks like you'll do quite well if you ever decide to slab and sell.

EVP

Zohar

Very nice designs indeed. Congratulations.

worldcoinguy

Very nice purchases. I watched a few on eBay recently but didn't have the funds to pursue. I am a big fan of the Baroque style designs of that period. I am finding the gravitational pull of the papal states issues to be growing exponentially.

Iosephus

A couple of very nice pickups! It would be interesting to see all of the various reverses next to each other and the different cartouche styles that were employed.

For my collecting purposes, I extend Baroque to cover through the reign of Clement XII (1740). To my eyes, the coins and medals struck from Benedict XIV onwards show a significant decrease in both quality and, perhaps more importantly, originality, as the coins all begin to take on standardized types that persist through different papacies.

JCMhouston

Very nice.

STLNATS

Thanks very much for the kind comments all. I frankly had to chuckle about the slabbing comment, but to each his own. I guess I'll attach a note with my will for the kids to consider when/if they dispose of my collection!

Joe, I agree that the baroque can reasonably go well into the 18th century, and I own several Clement XIs, but I don't find them as interesting/appealing as the pre 1700 stuff. Nice thing about this type of collecting is that you can pretty much define your objectives/boundaries as whatever you want.

It would be interesting to see all of the various reverses next to each other

I've been talking with an IT acquaintence about what it would take to put together a web site - my key obstacle is the time to do all the imaging of course, everything else looks pretty simple/straightforward. There's a pretty active thread called the "The Papal Corner" (gotta love that name) and I think as a stopgap I'm going to try to leverage their gallery capability to get these testones online as a starting point. Here's the link for the site. Its a great site and well worth joining for anyone seriously interested in this area. (hope I didn't just violate a PCGS term or condition by recommending a third party site!)

the Papal Corner

You know, purchases like these are making my interest in liteside National banknotes to wane more and more rapidly and I find myself thinking about what I could fund by selling some of the less core items. OK, now where can I find some more of these pretty testones...

Iosephus

<< <i>There's a pretty active thread called the "The Papal Corner" (gotta love that name) and I think as a stopgap I'm going to try to leverage their gallery capability to get these testones online as a starting point. Here's the link for the site. Its a great site and well worth joining for anyone seriously interested in this area. >>


What an interesting thread! I've looked around that site before when I was thinking of collecting ancients; I'll have to peruse that thread and maybe join in.

STLNATS

Papal Corner has some hard core guys who share a ton of fascinating info. A lot of stuff I hadn't thought about or come across. I started to participate just before Thanksgiving and already feel at home and think it'd be great to have your perspective and knowledge there too Joe.