HISTORIC OLD COINS
SILVER
COIN OF CHARLES V FROM BESANCON
Charles was the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna the
Mad. As heir to three of Europe’s leading dynasties: The
Hapsburgs, The House of Valois-Burgundy and the crown of Castile
& Aragon he ruled over much of Europe as well as the Spanish
colonies in the Americas and Asia. He stopped Suleyman the
Magnificent’s advance into Europe at the Siege of Vienna in
1529. In an effort to try to limit further religious wars
caused by the Protestant Reformation he encouraged the formation of the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the calling of the Council of Trent,
which attempted to reform the Catholic Church and repudiate
Protestantism. Charles abdicated the throne in 1555, dividing
his lands between his son, Phillip II,
who was given Spain, and his
brother Ferdinand, who was given the Hapsburg throne. In 1526
Charles granted the Free Imperial City of Besancon the right to issue
coins. At the time it was a French speaking city under nominal Hapsburg
rule. The city issued coins bearing the name and portrait of
Charles V until 1673. In 1674 French troops took the city and
it has since remained part of France. This silver coin,
called a Carlos is named after Charles. It has the Charles’s
portrait on the obverse and the cities arms on the reverse. The coins
date from about 1610 to 1622.
Item
BESANCON
BESANCON SILVER CARLOS 1610-1622 KM10 VG $39.95
MEDIEVAL HUNGARIAN
SILVER COIN OF SIGISMUND I
This small
(10mm) silver Obol (1/2 Denar) was issued in Hungary by
Sigismund I. Sigismund ruled Hungary from 1387 to
1437. He also ruled Luxembourg and Bohemia and was one of
three simultaneous claimants to The Holy Roman Empire. (Each
of which was supported by one of three simultaneous Popes).
Sigismund's long reign was less than a success. He
lost considerable portions of his land to the Turks and started the
bloody Hussite wars by promising Jan Hus safety, then had him burned at
the stake. The coin features a cross and crowns on one side
and coat-of-arms on the other. The coin tends to be crudely
struck, so part of the design is usually missing.
Item
HU-SIGS HUNGARY SILVER OBOL OF SIGISMUND,
1387-1437 F-Crude $13.50
OLD COIN OF
TRANSYLVANIA
For
hundreds of years Transylvania was a turbulent and bloody border region
fought over by the Turks and Hungarians. This silver Denar
was issued by John Zapolya between 1526 and 1530. John was
appointed governor of Transylvania in 1511 by the King of Hungary, who
nominally controlled the region. John brutally suppressed
peasant uprisings, which increased his popularity with the gentry,
though not with the peasants. In 1526 he was elected King of
Hungary. Unfortunately another group of Hungarian nobles elected
Ferdinand as King of Hungary as well. Eventually they signed
a secret treaty which gave Ferdinand control of Hungary and
Transylvania upon John's death. The coin features the Madonna and Child
on one side and the royal arms on the other.
Item
TRANS TRANSYLVANIA SILVER DENAR OF JOHN
ZAPOLYA 1526-30 $95.00
OLD POLISH SILVER
COIN OF SIGISMUND III
These silver 3 Polker coins of
Poland issued by king Sigismund III Vasa are dated between
1622 to 1624.
Sigismund became king of Poland and Lithuania in 1587. He was
also king of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599.
His efforts to unite Poland and Sweden caused sixty years of war
between the two. He invaded Russia in 1605, taking advantage
of their Time of Troubles. Despite occupying Moscow and
proclaiming himself to be Czar, he was unable to control the country.
His war in Russia continued until a peace treaty was finally signed
in 1618. One side of the coin has the crowned arms of united
Poland and Lithuania. The other side features the number 24
within an orb, indicating the coin was worth 1/24th of a Thaler. On
either side of the cross and orb are the last two digits of the
date. Sigismund did not feel it necessary to include the
first two digits.
Item
PL-41-24 POLAND 3 POLKER 1624 KM41
Fine $13.50
SILVER
COINS OF LEOPOLD THE HOGMOUTH
Leopold
I reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from 1658 to
1705. He had a rather pronounced lower lip, possibly brought
on by his fathers marriage to his own cousin. A Turkish
traveler described him as a cultivated man of extreme ugliness, hence
the name "The Hogmouth". As Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
(which was neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire) he ruled a vast
territory including Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, as well as parts of
Germany. He claimed the throne of Spain, leading to War of Spanish
Succession. Leopold fought a number of wars against the
Turks, who unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1683, and against France.
The engravers made no attempt to hide his ugliness on the
coins, hence his protruding Hapsburg lip is plainly visible on the
coin. His coins tend to have have a slight curvature that was
caused by the minting process which used "roller dies" rather the coin
being struck flat.
Item
AT-LEO-3K AUSTRIA SILVER 3 KREUZER LEOPOLD
THE HOGMOUTH 1660-1698 VF-XF $59.00
OLD
COIN OF AUSTRIA
The
Imperial Coat-of-Arms of Austria is featured on the obverse 1851
Austrian 1 Kruezer. It was the first time the denomination
had been struck since 1816, and was one of the first coins of Emperor
Franz-Joseph I, Franz-Joseph reigned for almost 68 years,
until his death in 1916. During his reign Austria lost its
possessions in Italy in the Italian Wars of Independence in 1859 and
1866. Its defeat in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 lead to
the unification of Germany under Prussia. After this rocky
beginning of his reign, a forty-eight year period of peace
then
prevailed in Austria until the start of World War I in 1914.
The reverse of the 23mm copper coin features the denomination and
date.
Item
AT-1KR AUSTRIA 1 KREUZER 1851
KM2185 VF
$3.00
Also see:
HUNGARY SILVER 1 KORONA
1912-1916 PICTURING EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH
PIECES-OF-EIGHT
FROM THE
WRECK OF THE EL CAZADOR
Few coins can match the history and romance of the
Piece-of-Eight. Commonly known as the Spanish 8 Reales, or Spanish
Milled Dollar, this
large silver coin was widely used throughout the Americas. Its
wide
acceptance made it a favorite of both pirates and merchants. It
was
used throughout the colonies before the American Revolution, and was
the basis of the United States Dollar. The coin continued to
be
legal
tender in the United States until 1857. These original Pieces-of-Eight
went down aboard the El
Cazador
in 1784 off the coast of Louisiana.
Some say that Spain's loss of
the El Cazador
changed the course of history. Spain had gained control of
New
Orleans and Louisiana from France by treaty in 1762, over objections of
the residents who had nothing to say in the matter. Following
the
American Revolution there was increasing rebellion in the territory
caused by restrictions Spain placed on trade with the United States, a
deluge of unbacked paper currency, and the ideals of the American
Revolution. King Carlos III of Spain dispatched the
brig of
war El Cazador, loaded with newly minted Pieces-of-Eight from the
Mexico City mint to New Orleans, in an effort to redeem the paper
currency and boost the local economy. Alas the ship was lost
at
sea. Perhaps it was attacked by pirates or lost in a storm. The
loss was devastating to both Louisiana’s economy and Spain's ability to
profit from the territory. Further efforts by the Spanish
Crown
to sustain Louisiana failed, and in 1800, Spain ceded Louisiana back to
France in exchange for some minor European considerations. Three
years later France sold Louisiana to the United States for $15 million
dollars. The Louisiana Purchase opened the floodgates of
westward
expansion for the young United States.
We have had these exciting coins that
helped bring
about a turning point in the history of the United States for some
time, however until recently, we have not been able to reveal the name
of the ship that they came from due to marketing
restrictions. We
can now reveal the story behind these historic Pieces-of-Eight.
The coins
bear the bust of Spanish King Carlos (Charles) III one side and the
Spanish coat-of-arms between the Pillars of Hercules on the other. The
coins were struck at the historic Mexico City Mint, and were on their
way from Mexico to the then Spanish port of New Orleans when the ship
was lost at sea. The coins were only recently recovered, and definitely
show signs that they have been underseas for the last 200 or so
years. The moderately corroded coins
are
hand
selected to show a readable date and a reasonable amount of the design
details.
Item
SP8RCAZ-MC PIECE-OF-EIGHT OF
CARLOS III
(1780-1783) MODERATELY CORRODED $159.50
EL
CAZADOR PIECE-OF-EIGHT IN NGC SLAB
Some Pieces-of-Eight recovered from the wreck of the El
Cazador have been certified as genuine by the Numismatic
Guarantee Corporation (NGC) and encapsulated in an official NGC hard
plastic holder, commonly called a "slab" .
The coins are not graded by NGC, only certified as genuine.
The slabbed coins tend to be nicer than the heavily corroded
El
Cazador 8 Reales listed above, but not as nice as the Moderately
Corroded coins. The coins are dated (usually 1783) and have
the Mexico City mintmark. Both the "slabbed" and "unslabbed"
versions of the coin are genuine, however some people like their coins
in a slab (it makes it easier to pass around and show off), so we now
offer the coins both ways.
Item
SP8RCAZ-SLAB PIECE-OF-EIGHT FROM EL CAZADOR
IN NGC SLAB $99.50
THE
WAR OVER BIRD POOP!
From
1879 to 1884 Bolivia, Chile and Peru engaged in the War of The
Pacific over control over huge piles of bird droppings (guano) which
were mined to obtain nitrate. Chile won, Bolivia became a
land-locked nation, and Peru almost collapsed. During the war
Peru issued special copper-nickel coins, which they called provisional
money, in place of their usual silver coins. We offer the set
of two historic Peru Provisional coins in Uncirculated conditions. The
5 Centavos is dated 1879 and the 10 Centavo is dated 1880.
The coins have the denomination on one side and a sun face on the
other. For Uncirculated coins over 125 years old with such an
unusual background, they are quite a bargain.
Item PE-SET2
PERU 5 & 10 CENTAVOS PROVISIONAL
ISSUE,
1879-1880 KM197-198 UNC
$9.95
SCARCE COIN OF DEMAK
SULTANATE
The
Demak Sultanate was founded about 1475 by Sultan Pangeran al Patah,
also known as Raden Patah. He was of Javanese nobility and his mother
may have been a Chinese princess who had been exiled from China.
His Sultanate was the first Muslim state in Java.
He quickly expanded his Sultanate to include most of the
northern coast of Java and southern Sumatra. This was
an important step in bringing Islam to what is now Indonesia.
The Sultan ruled until his death in 1518. The Sultanate
lasted about another 30 years, until it collapsed in a dynastic
feud. The Sultanate prospered through trade in spices, rice
and its control over Javanese trading ports. This
Pitis of Sultan Pangeran al Patah is one of the few
affordable coins of the Demak Sultanate. The uniface tin coin
is approximately 19mm to 20mm in diameter and grades Very Fine.
Item
DEMAK
DEMAK SULTANATE, TIN PITIS, PANGERAN AL PATAH 1475-1518 VF $19.50
SCARCE COINS OF
PORTUGUESE MALACCA
Portugal
took Malacca in 1511 and controlled it for the next 130 years, until it
was conquered by the Dutch East India Company. Today it is
part of Malaysia. The Malacca mint produced these tin
Dinheiro coins for use in the territory. John III (Joao III)
ruled Portugal from 1521 to 1557. He expanded Portugal’s colonization
of Brazil and Asia. He was called the “Grocer King” due to
his country’s rich profits from the spice trade. His tin
Dineiro features a Cross with the letters “ISMA” in the four quadrants,
which stood for Ioanes Senhor MalaccA, meaning struck for King John at
Malacca. The other side depicts an armillary sphere, which
was used in navigation. 
He
was succeeded by his young grandson, Sebastian I (Sebastio
I). Sebastian became king at age 3 in 1557.
Sebastian died in battle in a crusade against Morocco in 1578, before
marrying or producing any heirs. One side of his coin
features three arrows with the letters “BA”, which may mean “Bazaruco,
or bazaar money, indicating it was for local use. The other side has a
crude representation of an armillary sphere on the other.
Both coins are about 16mm to 18mm in diameter. They show
little wear, but are crudely struck.
Item
MALC-JOHN
PORTUGUESE MALACCA DINHIERO JOHN III 1521-1557 VF $30.00
Item
MALC-SEB
PORTUGUESE MALACCA DINHIERO SEBASTIAN 1557-1578 VF $30.00
THE MYSTEROUS DEATH OF
THE YOUNG KING
OF THAILAND
Ananda
Mahidol (Rama VIII) became the King of Siam at age 9 in 1935
upon the abdication of his Uncle. He was attending school in
Switzerland at the time. He did not return to Siam until
1938. In 1939 he formally changed the name of the country
to Thailand. He again left the country shortly
before the
outbreak
of World War II and did not return until December 1945, after the end
of the war. On June 9, 1945 he was found dead in his bed in
the royal palace with a bullet wound to his head. It is unclear if it
was murder, suicide or an accident as details of his death have been
suppressed. Probably the last person to see him alive was
Bhumibol Adulyadej, the present King of Thailand, who visited him some
20 minutes before the body was found. This tin 25
Satang bears the child’s-head of Ananda Mahidol on one side and a
mythical Garuda bird on the other. The coin is dated BE2489
(1946). The coin has virtually no wear, however it will be
toned or tarnished as is typical of tin coins.
Item
TH-66 THAILAND 25 SATANGS 1946 CHILD’S HEAD
Y66
XF-AU-toned
$8.00
OLD UNCIRCULATED
1911 COIN FROM GUERNSEY 
Guernsey
is a British posession off the coast of France. Their coinage
is based on a Double, which is derived from the old French Double
Tournois (2 Deniers). At the time this 1911 Guernsey 1 Double
was issued, the value of the Guernsey's currency was still tied to the
French Franc, even though it was a British posession. One
side of the coin features Guernsey's arms, the other side has the date
and denomination. The famed "H" mintmark of then private
Heaton mint in Birmingham is below the date. The 19mm bronze
coin has a mintage of only 45,000 pieces. The coin grades Uncirculated
though may have some toning. It is quite reasonably priced for a low
mintage Uncirculated coin that is over 100 years old
Item
GG-1D GUERNSEY 1 DOUBLE 1911-H KM10 UNC. $9.75
Also see:
OLD COINS OF THE
OF GUERNSEY
RECENT GUERNSEY
COIN SET
OLD
UNCIRCULATED COIN FROM THE KINGDOM BULGARIA
This 1912 Uncirculated
Bulgarian Bronze 1 Stotinka was found in the basement of a church in
Sophia, Bulgaria. The coins were probably hidden there at the
beginning of World War I, then forgotten. One side of the
coin
has the arms of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the other has the denomination
and date. Even after almost 100 years the coin still retains
much
of its original red luster. We are pleased to offer the coin
at
less than half of its $16.00 catalog value!
Item
BG-22
BULGARIA 1 STOTINKA 1912
KM22 UNC.
$7.00
Also see:
FIRST
COINS OF COMMUNIST BULGARIA
FOR MORE HISTORICAL OLD COINS, PLEASE SEE:
AFGHANISTAN COINS
OLD COINS OF ANNAM
SILVER COIN FROM THE
GRAND DUCHY OF FINLAND
COINS FROM FINLAND’S
CIVIL WAR
SCARCE PROVISIONAL COIN
OF HONDURAS
COINS OF
INDIA and PAKISTAN
COINS OF THE
MIDDLE EAST
2400 YEARS OF CHINESE COINS and
CURRENCY
COINS
OF DEAD NATIONS
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YOU WOULD LIKE TO VISIT:
Charles was the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna the
Mad. As heir to three of Europe’s leading dynasties: The
Hapsburgs, The House of Valois-Burgundy and the crown of Castile
& Aragon he ruled over much of Europe as well as the Spanish
colonies in the Americas and Asia. He stopped Suleyman the
Magnificent’s advance into Europe at the Siege of Vienna in
1529. In an effort to try to limit further religious wars
caused by the Protestant Reformation he encouraged the formation of the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the calling of the Council of Trent,
which attempted to reform the Catholic Church and repudiate
Protestantism. Charles abdicated the throne in 1555, dividing
his lands between his son, Phillip II,
who was given Spain, and his
brother Ferdinand, who was given the Hapsburg throne. In 1526
Charles granted the Free Imperial City of Besancon the right to issue
coins. At the time it was a French speaking city under nominal Hapsburg
rule. The city issued coins bearing the name and portrait of
Charles V until 1673. In 1674 French troops took the city and
it has since remained part of France. This silver coin,
called a Carlos is named after Charles. It has the Charles’s
portrait on the obverse and the cities arms on the reverse. The coins
date from about 1610 to 1622.
For
hundreds of years Transylvania was a turbulent and bloody border region
fought over by the Turks and Hungarians. This silver Denar
was issued by John Zapolya between 1526 and 1530. John was
appointed governor of Transylvania in 1511 by the King of Hungary, who
nominally controlled the region. John brutally suppressed
peasant uprisings, which increased his popularity with the gentry,
though not with the peasants. In 1526 he was elected King of
Hungary. Unfortunately another group of Hungarian nobles elected
Ferdinand as King of Hungary as well. Eventually they signed
a secret treaty which gave Ferdinand control of Hungary and
Transylvania upon John's death. The coin features the Madonna and Child
on one side and the royal arms on the other.
Leopold
I reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from 1658 to
1705. He had a rather pronounced lower lip, possibly brought
on by his fathers marriage to his own cousin. A Turkish
traveler described him as a cultivated man of extreme ugliness, hence
the name "The Hogmouth". As Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
(which was neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire) he ruled a vast
territory including Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, as well as parts of
Germany. He claimed the throne of Spain, leading to War of Spanish
Succession. Leopold fought a number of wars against the
Turks, who unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1683, and against France.
The engravers made no attempt to hide his ugliness on the
coins, hence his protruding Hapsburg lip is plainly visible on the
coin. His coins tend to have have a slight curvature that was
caused by the minting process which used "roller dies" rather the coin
being struck flat.
The
Imperial Coat-of-Arms of Austria is featured on the obverse 1851
Austrian 1 Kruezer. It was the first time the denomination
had been struck since 1816, and was one of the first coins of Emperor
Franz-Joseph I, Franz-Joseph reigned for almost 68 years,
until his death in 1916. During his reign Austria lost its
possessions in Italy in the Italian Wars of Independence in 1859 and
1866. Its defeat in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 lead to
the unification of Germany under Prussia. After this rocky
beginning of his reign, a forty-eight year period of peace
then
prevailed in Austria until the start of World War I in 1914.
The reverse of the 23mm copper coin features the denomination and
date. 
From
1879 to 1884 Bolivia, Chile and Peru engaged in the War of The
Pacific over control over huge piles of bird droppings (guano) which
were mined to obtain nitrate. Chile won, Bolivia became a
land-locked nation, and Peru almost collapsed. During the war
Peru issued special copper-nickel coins, which they called provisional
money, in place of their usual silver coins. We offer the set
of two historic Peru Provisional coins in Uncirculated conditions. The
5 Centavos is dated 1879 and the 10 Centavo is dated 1880.
The coins have the denomination on one side and a sun face on the
other. For Uncirculated coins over 125 years old with such an
unusual background, they are quite a bargain.
The
Demak Sultanate was founded about 1475 by Sultan Pangeran al Patah,
also known as Raden Patah. He was of Javanese nobility and his mother
may have been a Chinese princess who had been exiled from China.
His Sultanate was the first Muslim state in Java.
He quickly expanded his Sultanate to include most of the
northern coast of Java and southern Sumatra. This was
an important step in bringing Islam to what is now Indonesia.
The Sultan ruled until his death in 1518. The Sultanate
lasted about another 30 years, until it collapsed in a dynastic
feud. The Sultanate prospered through trade in spices, rice
and its control over Javanese trading ports. This
Pitis of Sultan Pangeran al Patah is one of the few
affordable coins of the Demak Sultanate. The uniface tin coin
is approximately 19mm to 20mm in diameter and grades Very Fine.
Portugal
took Malacca in 1511 and controlled it for the next 130 years, until it
was conquered by the Dutch East India Company. Today it is
part of Malaysia. The Malacca mint produced these tin
Dinheiro coins for use in the territory. John III (Joao III)
ruled Portugal from 1521 to 1557. He expanded Portugal’s colonization
of Brazil and Asia. He was called the “Grocer King” due to
his country’s rich profits from the spice trade. His tin
Dineiro features a Cross with the letters “ISMA” in the four quadrants,
which stood for Ioanes Senhor MalaccA, meaning struck for King John at
Malacca. The other side depicts an armillary sphere, which
was used in navigation. 
He
was succeeded by his young grandson, Sebastian I (Sebastio
I). Sebastian became king at age 3 in 1557.
Sebastian died in battle in a crusade against Morocco in 1578, before
marrying or producing any heirs. One side of his coin
features three arrows with the letters “BA”, which may mean “Bazaruco,
or bazaar money, indicating it was for local use. The other side has a
crude representation of an armillary sphere on the other.
Both coins are about 16mm to 18mm in diameter. They show
little wear, but are crudely struck. 
Ananda
Mahidol (Rama VIII) became the King of Siam at age 9 in 1935
upon the abdication of his Uncle. He was attending school in
Switzerland at the time. He did not return to Siam until
1938. In 1939 he formally changed the name of the country
to Thailand. He again left the country shortly
before the
outbreak
of World War II and did not return until December 1945, after the end
of the war. On June 9, 1945 he was found dead in his bed in
the royal palace with a bullet wound to his head. It is unclear if it
was murder, suicide or an accident as details of his death have been
suppressed. Probably the last person to see him alive was
Bhumibol Adulyadej, the present King of Thailand, who visited him some
20 minutes before the body was found. This tin 25
Satang bears the child’s-head of Ananda Mahidol on one side and a
mythical Garuda bird on the other. The coin is dated BE2489
(1946). The coin has virtually no wear, however it will be
toned or tarnished as is typical of tin coins.
Guernsey
is a British posession off the coast of France. Their coinage
is based on a Double, which is derived from the old French Double
Tournois (2 Deniers). At the time this 1911 Guernsey 1 Double
was issued, the value of the Guernsey's currency was still tied to the
French Franc, even though it was a British posession. One
side of the coin features Guernsey's arms, the other side has the date
and denomination. The famed "H" mintmark of then private
Heaton mint in Birmingham is below the date. The 19mm bronze
coin has a mintage of only 45,000 pieces. The coin grades Uncirculated
though may have some toning. It is quite reasonably priced for a low
mintage Uncirculated coin that is over 100 years old