More Hammered Gold

[GDJMSP]

The successor of the franc a' cheval - the franc a' pied issued by Charles V of France in 1365.

 

 

 

After his father's death while held captive in England, Charles restarted the 100 Years War, determined to drive the English from France. He nearly succeeded, recapturing all but Gayenne and Calais. He became known as Charles the Wise and was responsible for building the Louvre as well as the Bastille.

[Hoot]

Very sweet coin GDJMSP! I like it a lot. Are the chips out of the rim from rim filing or was it an irregular planchet? If from rim filing, were these adjustment marks or filching?

 

Hoot

[GDJMSP]

Irregular flan ( planchet ) - quite common with this type of coin from any nation. You can't believe how thin this coin is - we're talkin paper here The coin is 29mm and actual weight is 3.79 gm.

[Hoot]

The size makes me wonder about the practicality of such a piece! How could it (or one like it) ever have circulated and survived? Speaking of survival, what would the provenance of such a piece be? Surely, few have survived the years.

 

Hoot

[GDJMSP]

A fair question - best answer I can give is that the weight of the gold coins was partly because at this time Europe was only beginning to issue gold coins. And prior to that everything was based on the value of silver. So the amount of gold in a coin was relatively small while the diameter was large proportionally. This made them thin.

 

But it was quite common actually as many of the gold coins from this period were of the 4 - 6 gm weight. And not just those of France - but most of the countries of Europe. It was also at this time that the ducat was sweeping the world and gaining popularity. And the weight of the ducat - although smaller in diameter at 22 mm - was 3.5 gm - universally.

 

So I rather think this played a large part in how the weight and diameter of gold non-ducat coins was determined. For all of the royalty wanted to have their own coinage but yet have it be as acceptable in other nations as the ducat was. But in the end they were to lose this battle and the ducat soon became the world's coin. So between silver being the previous standard and competition with the ducat - this is what we got.

 

As for the provenance - I can only guess. I can say that with a few of my coins I have been able to trace previous owners, or dealers anyway, back for a few decades just by perusing auction & sales records. For as you say - coins like these are not found growing on trees. And this makes it possible to readily identify individual coins. There are numerous examples at any given time on the market - but the condition of those examples is no where near this coin's condition.

 

I also think - cannot prove by any means - that if a person wished to do the necessary research - many coins from this period could be traced directly back to the Royal collections. For at the time it was only the Royals and the nobility who collected coins. This is the only logical explanation there is for coins like this to have survived.

 

For they do call this pursuit of our's - the Hobby of Kings. And for centuries - it literally was

[JamminJ]

Another super gold coin!

 

I wonder if it was so thin because they were trying to immitate the coinage of Byzantium. Those coins are also large diameter but paper thin and had been around for hundreds of years when yuor coin was struck.

 

-JamminJ

[GDJMSP]

Perhaps - but I rather doubt it. At the time Byzantuium was greatly out of favor with the European nations. Their coinage was even more out of favor. It was this hatred of Byzantium and their previous domination of the world's economy that led to the unprecedented success of the Venetian ducat and its successor ducats in other nations.

 

Also - at this time - the majority of the world's silver production was flowing to Byzantium for the same reason while the gold was flowing to Europe. It was a time of major economic change as Europe, in particular Venice, was fast becoming the trade center of the world.

 

200 years later - that changed yet again and the Netherlands became the world's center for trade and the eastern empire was completely forgotten. But that's another story - and another coin

[JamminJ]

But that's another story - and another coin

 

Another story, another coin and another Charles V!

 

-JamminJ

[Hoot]

Excellent information! Many thanks!

 

Hoot

[GDJMSP]

Another story, another coin and another Charles V!

 

-JamminJ

 

 

Hey - you don't think I'm formin a pattern here do ya ?

 

Why next thing ya know folks will be thinkin I'm a set collector

[Wihlborg]

Wonderful coin GDJMSP! I like it a lot.

 

John