damian1986

You know I did think it was his wife at first, 'tache and all. If not his wife, then who is she? As it goes the design is fairly accurate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_I_of_Prussia

You know I did think it was his wife at first, 'tache and all.

KM#525. 2 Mark. 1901. Wilhelm II, Prussia (Berlin mint). Commemorating 200 years of Prussia as a kingdom. Pretty common, nicely toned imho. KM#500. 1 Thaler. 1871. Wilhelm I, Prussia (Berlin mint). Celebrates victory over France in the Franco-Prussian war. Seated figure is pleasing to look at under a glass. Hair detail look a little flat but no wear to the ear or beard so I figure it's mostly weak but I struggle to tell.

Sounds perfect! I hadn't given much thought to driving over but that would work. Actually I was in Prague last year and regret not bringing back a few crates of Krusovice and more cigars. The cigars I can source online, the Krusovice I haven't been able to find anywhere. A few barrells of the good stuff in the boot sounds about right Hohenschwangau would have to be on the cards. The whole area looks amazing

Actually, thinking about this, I'd have said that 110,000 is relatively low, and I think that the 1866 coins are included in that figure. The Thalers with the Bavarian coat of arms were minted in much higher quantities but go for quite a bit more. Ludwig II was a crackpot by all accounts but did some nice work - Neuschwanstein Castle - I'd like to get over and see this this year. A few Rapunzelesque blondes whilst in Bavaria is another incentive..

KM#877 18,52g of .900 silver mintage of 110,000 pieces The Virgin Mary as Brünnhilde, and the baby Jesus as Richard Branson - well, that's a novelty... I have a 2009 copy of the 1801-1900 Krause, handy reference. 80.00 in BU is a bit dreamy though, but maybe you could get them that good at that price in 2009, I wouldn't know. I stopped looking at prices in foreign coin catalogues, less so the English ones too nowadays. Hah yes Peck that was all part of the appeal. What's the link Scott? I'm quite interested in some of the 18th and 19th C stuff.

KM#877 18,52g of .900 silver mintage of 110,000 pieces The Virgin Mary as Brünnhilde, and the baby Jesus as Richard Branson - well, that's a novelty... I have a 2009 copy of the 1801-1900 Krause, handy reference. 80.00 in BU is a bit dreamy though, but maybe you could get them that good at that price in 2009, I wouldn't know. I stopped looking at prices in foreign coin catalogues, less so the English ones too nowadays. Hah yes Peck that was all part of the appeal.

Ludwig II Madonna Thaler, 1865, Bayern.

What's your reference guide for Russian coins?

or you could go for something really interesting, like this , shame he doesn't post to the UK Realised prices for this (ten dollar) coin: MS-62 BN (PCGS) March 27, 2004 (Heritage Auctions)...$43,700.00 (Live phone bid)MS-64 RB (PCGS) January 15, 2005 (Heritage Auctions)...$36,800.00 (Live floor bid)*MS-61 BN (PCGS) May 7, 2005 (Heritage Auctions)...$39,100.00 (eBay Bidder)EF-45 (PCGS) Private sale (2007) $22,000.00MS-64 RB (PCGS August, 2007 (Bowers and Merena Auctions)...$85,100.00Courtesy of an overzealous Ken Potter - http://koinpro.tripod.com/Articles/1969S1cDDFound.htm - who reckons there are "just" 30 examples in existence.

Thanks for sharing Scott I am looking forward to digging more into Russian coins. For now I'm back to German. The first to arrive is a decent example of the 4 Reichspfennig "Bruning Taler". I don't really understand the logic behind the coin - the idea was that shopkeepers would reduce prices (I guess working in multiples of 4 rather than 5 was the idea) which would in turn get people spending and sort out a poorly economy. It didn't work.

'nah' as in you do have a Peter I, couldn't find it sorry can you post it? I think you did well with the Ivan the Terrible good scalp.

Fascinating - and not bad coins either, despite their irregularity (or perhaps because of it?) See I think that their irregularity is, in the main part, testament to the minting process, they'd be flattened out and end up more oval in shape. Actually Peter I did away with these coins, introducing the rouble in about 1705'ish off the top of my head.. The one you posted Scott is the Ivan the Terrible one? The odd thing is, and I may be wrong here but it does seem this way, the older wire money is actually better. All of the Peter I wire money seems to be crude, oval and missing parts of the inscription. These dealer graded these gVF and aEF respectively if that helps put it into some sort of perspective - I was only really interested in seeing the portrait on the obverse and a 'legible' description on the reverse: hence two purchases to cover more ground in this respect. The full inscription would read 'Tsar and Great Prince Peter Alekseevich of all Russia'.

Two Russian silver wire Kopecks of Peter I (c. 1700). Approx 10mm x 8mm (!) As I understand it they rolled silver into wire with the needed diameter and then would cut the wire along its length to produce each flan, really a crude way of ensuring 'consistency' in weight / silver content. Two dies were then smashed together with a hammer, the bottom die fixed and the top die held in position by whoever was doing the hammering.

Interesting, why are they called cobs and how come they were minted like that?

Thanks Matt me also. It's the first French emergency token I've bought too so 'fills that gap' in a manner of speaking.

Thanks Scott. Yea I noticed quite a few varieties of each type just no others with the lower bust and mint mark to the left of the ribbon. Yes I agree, though I had a hard time of it when hunting down the second issue reichspfennigs of the Third Reich. I didn't do the notgeld piece justice with my photography but the original image does

Getting carried away now, the best last (not a great photo though unfortunately):

French emergency money. I'm not usually a fan of zinc but I reckon this is actually embellished by the toning, on the reverse at least.

I've been doing a bit around enlightened absolutism so a Joseph II purchase was in order. He introduced the serfdom patent which proposed to give peasants the right to move between estates to find work and to marry whomever they wanted but some of the Austrian states refused to either 1. tell the peasants or 2. enact it at all. Anyway I'm concerned about this one. The B mint mark is in the wrong place for me - usually it's directly beneath the bust on the obverse. This particular issue was purportedly minted at Kremnitz and you do see some differences between Austrian and Hungarian Kreuzers, and across the 1770s in general, but still... anyone know much about these to be able to help?

Daniel Dupuis did some nice work (course he was no Pistrucci ) but then his wife killed him in his sleep. Maybe he ought to have engraved "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, ou la Mort" (liberty, equality, freedom, or death) which was the phrase commonly seen around the time of the French Revolution. I suspect they'd had enough of death by the time of the Third Republic though...

What's a paint spray addict got to do with coins?? Even your full link (www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381461/Addict-Kelly-Gibson-arrested-sniffing-spray-paint-covered-silver-mugshot.html) says what it is... Sorry forgive my shit sense of humour. I'll make up for it with a few interesting ones coming this week.

Don't know about 'good' but some Russian coins. Though not for cheap I'm afraid. ma-shops PGN Cheers yes I use MA Shops quite a bit. Actually bought a Joseph II 20 Kreuzer off there yesterday. Tell you what though they do like a good dip on there, here's a link to one of the dealers. PGN looks alright thanks Ah "the boom" - I picked the right time to start collecting didn't I? I suppose the roubles are nice coins and anyone wanting to invest in numismatic silver is going to be drawn to them. For me I'm trying to build up a picture of the so-called long nineteenth century so the coin has to tell the story and that is the main requirement - unfortunately it's the portrait coinage, i.e. roubles, that do that best.

Whoa - all this talk of the Freudian Numismatic Society is what it is... Me too although it's hard to know really as there doesn't seem to be the same level of interest / outlets for sale of Russian coins as, say, French or German. Maybe comparatively fewer survived compared with other countries. If anyone knows a good dealer of Russian coinage do tell. CGB have some but don't seem very interested on the whole.

I would like a few Russian coins as they were such big players in early modern European history, but most really don't appeal to me. This one does though with the monogram of Catherine the Great, except I'd have nowhere to put it as they're ginormous aren't they. Do you have any roubles Scott?