frank

I always carry a big silver piece or two in the watch pocket of my jeans. All of them are somewhat worn. Choices:

1890 Mexico 8 reales

1820 France 5 francs

1921 US $1 Peace dollar

1835 France 5 francs

Definitely Henri III (reign 1574-1589), since the double tournois was newly introduced in 1575, and Henri IV's title is usually styled REX FR ET NAV (Navarre), whereas Henri III was R DE FRAN ET POL (Poland). I've seen different mints corresponding to mintmark X --either Amiens or Villefranche de Rouergue. The date would have been on reverse where your coin is clipped. There are usually mint/engraver marks on the reverse under the 2 fleurs-de-lis. I can't make out what yours is.

Google is the emblematist's dream. The wheel was associated with Fortuna in Roman times, but I can't find any pix of statues to show it. But lots of engravings from later on seem to indicate that the French, odd though they be, weren't alone:

Carmina Burana manuscript, 13th c. --the artist may well have been French here, though!

German, end of 15th c.

I can't find the origin of this Tarot card, but I'm guessing German / Northern Europe...

[later edit: I had forgotten about Roman coins...:]

Love the méreau, Ian. As for Fortuna, here's a Swiss medal from 1554 with a similar pose (which may well be taken from antiquity): http://www.historischesmuseumbasel.ch/fr/sammlung/muenzen-und-medaillen/16111-allegorische-medaille-auf-das-glueck.html

And here's a Nuremburg jeton, probably from the 17th century:

I have a medium-sized collection of Kilian Koch jetons. His style is immediately recognizable.

This undated jeton (which is the same as that shown on the cgbfr site) is a Nuremburg copy of the original described in Feuardent. The engraver is Kilian Koch, who produced a fair amount of copies of French jetons in the late 16th century.

In this jeton (see the cgbfr site for better detail) he puts his own signature crest around Pegasus's neck! Cf this jeton with the crest between his initials:

Happy B-day M! May you discover new cocktails and new books in the coming year. May you meet new people and travel to new places, but may your home and your present friends always be a comfort.

Wow -- I've never thought twice about all the "sunflowers" on French 17th-c. jetons. They may actually be modeled (literally and figuratively) on New World flowers, or they may simply be repeating the iconography (and the representation of the flower) from earlier figures.

A Cnut! A Cnut! Just like in Harry Potter! I need one!

Hi Bsam -- Try posting in the Ancients thread.

I just love this thread, Ian. Especially that last jeton --AVENIR ASSURANCES. No avenir [future] for this company, if no records exist...

Constanius! Did you like the medieval font in Rouyer so much that you adopted it for your byline? I like it!

Nifty history.

Love it. I've never seen anything like it. Is that the Holy Spirit blessing the holy spirits?

Looks genuine to me. "CAMERAE COMPUTOR REGIORUM" (Chambre des comptes du roi) --Royal Treasury. One of the first series of royal French jetons. This is similar to #1728 in Feuardent's catalogue --see site: http://archive.org/stream/jetonsetmreauxd00unkngoog#page/n156/mode/2up

Feuardent describes the image on the dated side (which he designates recto) as Mercury removing weeds from a bundle of wheat (left) and burning them on a fire (right). Mercury is a popular figure in French Renaissance iconography. God of commerce but also of thieves. Maybe this is an allegory of counterfeiting --separating the good from the bad. "SUBDUCENDIS RATIONIBUS" means "for the settling of accounts"; jetons were (among many other things) used traditionally as counters in drawing up bills etc.

1560 is an interesting date in France. Henri II died tragically in 1559 in a jousting tournament. He was succeeded by his sickly 15-yr-old son François II --who was married to Mary Queen of Scots-- who ruled only 15 months before dying in 1560 and being succeeded by his younger brother, Charles IX. Things were falling apart in France. The Wars of Religion were growing worse and under the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 (before the death of Henri II) France was significantly weakened politically in Europe.

16th-century French jetons tend to be poorly made, and not many survive in good condition. Yours looks great --I'd keep it for sure.

I'd love to see it, Sam. You may already know, but in order to post photos here, you need to first upload them to an online site (such as Photobucket), then copy that site's URL for the image and (in your post on CP) paste it in the blank that appears when you click on the "image" icon.

Oh my gosh Constanius, what a beautiful medal. I can count on the fingers of one hand the silver jetons/medals I've seen from the French Renaissance. Those die cracks are lovely.

A few of these misspelled medallions are still out there somewhere!

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/11/vatican-pulls-misspelled-lesus-coins/?hpt=hp_bn1

[ Unintended double post ]

Love the reverse: the Hamsa hand flanked with what must be serpents trying to wind around a missing Rod of Asclepius...

Maybe the engraver used a real, surgically removed hand for a model?

And many many more. Happy B-day, Art!

There are a lot of people who dislike starlings --they're an invasive species they're noisy and messy--but I've always liked them.

NY Magazine had an article on former NY city brothels and identified Lena de Merville's as being at 114 W 31st St.: http://nymag.com/includes/3/maps/2012/brothels/brothel-lb.html

That address doesn't even exist today: https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=40.748218,-73.989970&cbp=13,267.1,0,0,0&cbll=40.748220,-73.989933&q=114+w+31+st+new+york&ei=rXtIUqvwEMTCqQHbloBQ&ved=0CCwQxB0wAA

Napoléon says "Bon anniversaire, Vern!"

Congrats Ian on finding one of those hen's teeth. Must've been exciting.