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Author Topic: Hungarian Matthias denar with unusual legend  (Read 1302 times)

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Offline agord

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Hungarian Matthias denar with unusual legend
« on: September 27, 2009, 01:24:54 pm »
I recently acquired a Hungarian Denar of Matthias Corvinus that has unusual obverse legend break markers. I have looked at 4 different online Hungarian coin dealers’ stores, ebay, the galleries on this site, and Steven Kaplan’s series of articles in The Celator on this series, and have not found anything similar.
 The obverse legend reads, as best as I can see
  M dot MAThIE annulet R annulet hVGAREI rosette
I was wondering if anyone had seen anything similar

Offline Stkp

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Re: Hungarian Matthias denar with unusual legend
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2009, 01:20:46 pm »
The coin is a Huszár 717, Pohl 216-7, Unger 562g, Réthy II 235A, Kaplan Subtype B.  It was struck in Hermannstadt (formerly Nagyszeben, Hungary (Translyvania), now Sibiu, Romania) by Thomas Althemberger, kammergraf, in 1468 (per Pohl).

I am not surprised that you haven’t encountered another coin with this exact obverse legend.  Matthias’s Madonna denars were struck with numerous legend variations, and no compilation of them has ever been published.

I have seen very few Huszár 717s struck at Hermannstadt; so few that I could not make any tentative generalizations about them in my Celator article.  I am attaching images of two others – one from my personal gallery, and the other from a Hungarian dealer’s website.  As you can see, your coin and these others have a number of traits in common:  (a) the style of the lettering is more elaborate than is typical at other mints; and (b) all three coins have odd/erroneous obverse legends.  Note that the first coin (mine) bears the legend M MAhTIE • R • hVGARIE (the h and the T are transposed in MAThIE; and the n is missing in hVnGARIE).  In the other coin, the orientation of the letter h in MAThIE is retrograde. 

I recall seeing very few Huszár 717s with a rosette as part of a legend, and only recall seeing this feature with respect to coins issues at Kaschau (Kassa in Hun., now Košice, Slovakia).  Your coin is also unusual due to the angle of the Infant’s head on the reverse.

Steve

 

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