Poland (Lithuania): silver half-groschen of Sigismund II, 1550

lordmarcovan

Poland (Lithuania): silver half-groschen of Sigismund II, 1550

Grand Duchy of Lithuania (union with Poland). Silver half-groschen of Sigismund II Augustus*, (1546-1572), struck 1550 at Vilnius.
Obverse: National arms of Lithuania (knight charging left on horseback, brandishing a sword), date below.
Reverse: National arms of Poland (heraldic eagle).
Gumowski-598, Kop-3239. 20 mm, 1.1 g. Ex-Coin Kingdom LLC, 1/3/2013. Purchased in the NGC AU58 holder.
(Sold in October 2013 but repurchased in March of 2014.)

This coin covered a lot of my mental checklist attributes. Cool design? Check. (Say- is it me, or does that knight sort of resemble a long-haired woman? Great eagle, too.) Nice grade? Check. (AU58 is not bad at all for a 463-year-old coin.) Eye appeal? Check. (It's semi-lustrous.) Early date? Check. (I love coins with early dates on them, for some reason.) Silver? Check. (Silver is always good, when you can't afford gold.) Reasonable size? Check. (Being roughly the size of a US nickel, it's a nice medium size and not too tiny.) Price? Check. (I got this already in the slab, for just under a hundred bucks.) For a few dollars more, I could have had my pick between a couple of MS61 examples, but I actually liked the look of this AU58 a little better.





Original seller page

NGC cert verification page

When posted here, this coin was part of my "Eclectic Box of 20" collection.

WillieBoyd2

Nice coin!

Maybe the knight is a "woman warrior".

France got a lot of mileage from such a person only 100 years earlier.

nicholasz219

My gf was looking for a Polish piece at the show I took her to. I was able to find a holed vf specimen of Sigismund I for a rock bottom price and she was thrilled. I'll convert her yet! Great looking coin. Polish stuff seems to be really hit or miss on the find-a-deal-ability scale.

brg5658

LordMarcovan,

That is a lovely example of the type. These little silvers are quite available, but the sheer age makes them extremely attractive collector pieces. The design of the Lithuanian mounted knight together with the Piast eagle also add to the popularity.

I recently picked up a nice looking 1547 MS63 piece. I also have an AU58 1548 example.



From an historical perspective, here is a picture of Sigismund Augustus II, and a period-relevant example of the crest from circa 1555.



I've always found it curious that they started striking this design in 1546, as "Sigismund the Old" didn't die until 1548. I guess they were planning ahead for his death or something?

-Brandon

lordmarcovan

Brandon- excellent! Thanks for posting yours!

PolishSilver

Here's one that I picked up a few months ago.

PolishSilver

I was able to scoop this one up as well.

lordmarcovan

Lot of 'em out there, then, I take it.

No matter. That's what keeps the price down, no doubt.

I like 'em. Y'all's MS examples are cool. Like I said, I could have had my pick of a couple MS61 examples for only ten or twelve bucks more, but I just liked this AU58.

lordmarcovan

I sold this coin to a forum member last October. It was one of several pieces I parted with to get funds for my England metal detecting trip.

In March, 2014, the buyer asked if I might want to buy it back, as he was changing collecting patterns. I said sure, it was welcome to come back home. So now it's headed back to me. (I don't mind this sort of "boomerang" action.)

But it's not likely to stay in my "Box of 20" for very long. It might get put up for sale again soon. But not because I dislike it. Not at all! I like early dated coins.

It's just that my Box of 20 has progressed quite a bit recently, and so this coin is actually the "cheapest" one in the box.

I can already tell this "Box of 20" concept is going to become increasingly more difficult as the quality and/or value of the coins improves. Now that I've sold off most of the generic "filler" stuff, the "bottom" coins in the box are ones I like just fine. It might be sentimentally difficult to sell them just to make room for new additions. But that's the whole challenge. (Who knows, I might drop the whole "Box of 20" thing in a few years, when I have 20 really nice pieces. I suppose I can always break it up into Darkside and Liteside boxes, or a PCGS and an NGC box... whatever.)