In the early 1980's in a small town of Northern Germany, by
the North Sea, a small horde of Medieval silver and gold coins
was discovered. These coins were unearthed in an old house,
built in the fifteenth century and scheduled for demolition.
All of the coins were minted prior to 1550. Due to flooding
over the centuries, the silver coins were badly oxidized, and
of no consequence, but the gold coins were in superb condition.
One can just imagine the wealthy merchant who hid these coins
in his home to avoid the eyes of his neighbors or the tax collector.
Then presumably, he must have died without informing anyone
of his treasure. The following coins included here are all of
the pieces that are available to the collecting public.
These
rare hammered Goldguldens of the 14th to 16th century are
very seldom seen anywhere, and possibly have never been seen
in such quality in the United States.
These
coins, reflecting their date and place of origin, are usually
religious in nature. Thus, they most often have a portrait
of a bishop or saint on the obverse, with a coat of arms of
their issuing area on the reverse.
Usually,
such coins, as a result of their age, are poorly preserved,
and grade fine or lower. We are most fortunate in that most
of the pieces we have bought grade very fine and extremely
fine. We even have a few that are almost uncirculated specimens.
There
is one major catalog, written in English, that contains these
pieces. That book is, "Gold Coins of the World",
by Robert Friedberg. All of these coins are listed in the
book in two grades, Very fine, and Extremely Fine. These two
grades are used, because better than Extremely Fine is usually
not possible for such early coins. What is truly amazing about
our grouping, is that many of the pieces are actually better
than Extremely fine, and certified so as well!
Therefore, we can offer two distinct levels, uncertified coins
in fine and very fine, and certified coins, most often better
than very fine.
Please
note that the Krause Catalog that many of you own, do not
contain these coins. That is because the Krause books begin
at 1600, and these coins predate the book.
Please
take some time to study these coins. It will be a long time
before anyone sees such a grouping again. Click
here to shop online.
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