NEWP! I'm a little Hungary

nicholasz219

Well, after seeing LM's thread the other day about these Denar, I happened to see one for sale for a few bucks from a seller in Australia that I had already bought a few ancients from. So for a few bucks more and combined shipping, I got this little Lady.

Denar Obverse

Denar Reverse

NiceCurrency

I like that

bronzemat

A nice addition!

Zohar

JCMhouston

Very cool.

lordmarcovan

Excellent!

I was "hungary" for some of those, too, and came within a mouse's whisker of attempting a date set of them, as you saw.

I even bought some 30-pocket Gardmaster album pages for the set, since those have smaller pockets and a space for a printed date label below each pocket.

At the last minute, I changed my mind and tore off towards Ancient Greece instead.

I'm using standard 20-pocket pages for the Greek album, though, so if you form a Hungary habit and decide to denars by date and think you might want the Gardmaster pages, let me know. I'd swap them to whomever can use them. They're good for any coin below 25 mm or so, and I have 5 new pages, so enough for 150 coins.

PS- you chose a nice denar, there. Full flan and a good clear strike. That isn't always the case with these, as I am sure you've noticed in your browsing.

nicholasz219

Thanks LM, I appreciate the offer. I may take you up on that offer if I have more than a total of one of these. Yes I wish the head of Jesus was not deformed. But a good little coin for a few bucks. Yet another side project to keep me busy. It's weird how these either go for a few dollars apiece or like $30 apiece and not much in between.

lordmarcovan

I guess they're relatively common, for the period, anyway, and must have pretty good survival from hoards. That, and the fact they're a bit small and maybe just esoteric enough to escape the attention of the average First World collector, keeps the price down.

I have always thought they pack a lot of bang for the buck, though, personally, so when I recently found out in that discussion that one could feasibly assemble a date run of them for a century or more, without major rarities or other gaps, they seemed eminently collectible.

And I came very close to embarking on such a project. Had I had but four or five to seed such a beginning, I may have set out down that road instead of trying out Greek coins as I am now doing.

I may yet have a go at these one day. By then they will have awakened and gotten more expensive, no doubt.

nicholasz219

LM, no doubt. It seems that I might get a year or two ahead of the curve, then the big money moves in and I move out.

I like these coins for their medieval look, even though they are clearly later by date and I like the Madonna and Christ-child motif. It is a fun coin to show non collectors who have any sort of Christian beliefs because it is something not seen on US coinage today (well, or ever) and like Roman coins, really brings a sense of history and continuity to them in a big way.

It's something that like my US large cents collection, I like, but since prices seem to be all over the place, I can afford to add a piece here and there and if I can make a nice date run out of it then great. If not, a couple of nice pieces and I will figure out what to do with them later.

It also scratches the itch I get every time I see Zohar post his ridiculously awesome Talers which I have no chance of affording. These aren't so grand, but they are in the same vein and pretty in their own way.