Drachm from the kingdom of Persis, circa 50 AD. This is about as foreign a coin as I could find. Even the ruler is a mystery: he's the unknown king formerly known as Prince Y.

Ah, the mysteries of unknown rulers...

Follis commemorating the founding of Rome, issued in 334 when Constantine I was moving the capital from Rome to Constantinople. Lots of political hoohah.

It's a common coin, but it still astounds me that a piece of history can be so inexpensive.

Okay, I bought this to make one of my brothers laugh. I've loved the Tintin/Kuifje books since I was tiny, and my brother has bought me all sorts of Tintin stuff over the years. Captain Haddock is my favorite, though. His cussing added all sorts of great words to my vocabulary.

These are known as Urbs Roma pieces, supposedly issued to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Rome. I have always liked these pieces because of the Romulus and Remus getting suckled by the wolf on the reverse.

It is cool to get something so emblematic of Rome and it's history for very little money, I have seen these for less than $10 each and for very nice examples under $150.

Ah yes ... one of those I have too. And, it does involve an animal.

Christian

Who is his favorite pop music artist?

Mikey?

I don't know, but he wore a raspberry beret.

I had to use google to verify your oldness and sure enough, he did that song.

Oh, this guy?
http://boutique.europassion.org/ModuleBout...intNumeroPage=5

You guessed it - Hergé was born 100 years ago, and the Monnaie de Paris thought it would be a good idea to crank out a whole set of gold and silver (colored silver ...) collector coins. Will be issued in May or so.

Christian

What would Captain Haddock say about that design?

Hehe, good one. That Europassion "sticker" is of course not on the coin (but was added by that store) but the rest of the piece is bad enough. Marchands de tapis ... ou de pièces commémos françaises, phh, je m'en fous.

Christian

If you are a true Kuifje/TinTin-fan, I can only warn you not to read the biography of Hergé. He could draw a nice bunch of comics, but the man himself wasn't nice at all, to say the least.

Regards from Belgium, the country that minted that "coin" of yours

Jos

I love it. I'm a big fan of cartoonish coins though.

I like tiny coins and gargantuan ones. This 1901 Old Head Maundy set falls into the former category, with the 1p being only 11.15mm. (Roaddevil needs one to make his Netherlands 5 cent look overweight.)

I pilfered these pics from the seller because I'm crap at coin photography. The set is in an NGC slab, making it even more difficult to capture the toning. So here's the obverse of the 3p and reverse of the... take a wild guess.

Since Queen Victoria died in January 1901, and Maundy Thursday is in April, these must have been distributed after her death. (At the time, monarchs didn't participate in the Maundy ceremony anyway.) She was 82, so 82 men & women received 82 pence each - I think. I haven't read the book.

I'd like to free them from the slab and put them into a little Maundy case, but the slab will help slow down the toning process. Hmmm.

What a beautiful coin.

Although I don't collect them myself, I love the Maundy sets. Your's is a beautifully toned example. I hope you acquire some complete sets with the cases. They are not that expensive and are full of history, symbolism, etc. Great acquisition and the potential start of a passion.

Oh, I'm the same way! Puny and ginormous coins. That 1901 piece is stunning!

Lovely Maundy pieces! I'm not sure if it still applied in 1901, but for a while in Victorian times Maundy sets were sold to the general public by mail order before being stopped due to the actual Maundy receipents being unhappy about other people being able to buy the pieces.

Thanks! Some of the old cases are lovely in themselves, and I suspect my Maundy collection won't stop here.

I like that the coins broken out of sets are called "oddments."

Yes, that was still true in 1901. People could order sets from the bank, and the mintage was 8,976. The mintages lowered considerably after the recipients complained.

What did the recipients complain about?

Well, some of them complained about their digestive systems and how everything was going to hell in a handbasket.

They also complained that the widespread availability of the Maundy sets made receiving them in the Maundy ceremony something of a crock.

Maundy coins are neat, and as you note, they were distributed to the poor etc. but examples were also available to collectors and these can be encountered in proof sets. My wife has a 1901 set that someone put on loops and put on a charm for a bracelet, I bought it for $19.01 in 2001 and gave it to her for her charm bracelet. Myself I have a 1902 Edward VII set in the original box that I bought when I was a teenager.

I really would like an Elizabeth II set, but these go up exponentially in price because of the interest in them.

And thanks for the Maundy set info.

Fellow CP denizen hiho backed away from the auction for this 1622 Westfriesland rijksdaalder when he learned I'd been draw to it. He is a chivalrous person and a terrible influence.

It weighs 28.72 gr and is 42 cm in diameter. There are a few weirdnesses on the reverse that puzzle me, like the line running from the bottom of the "C" at 8 o'clock and that trailing line of silver over the "16." Maybe it was just a sloppy hammering job? There's certainly lots of doubling.

The daalder equalled 30 stuivers. In 1622, an unskilled worker made 12 stuivers a (long) day, while artisans made around 28 stuivers. I found a ledger from slightly later in the century that showed the yearly expenses of a minister. His fruit and vegetable purchases amounted to 448 stuivers, while he spent 1400 stuivers on wine & beer! Oh, and he also spent twice as much on cleaning products as he did on fruits & vegetables, in keeping with the Dutch reputation for insane amounts of scrubbing.



In 1622, Westfrisian coins were minted either in Hoorn or in Enkhuizen. This is the Enkhuizen mint, at Westerstraat 125. My dad was born and raised at Westerstraat 95. Both buildings are still standing; the mint is some sort of office and my grandparents' house is primarily a Chinese restaurant.