What is this 17th century Swiss coin?
score:21
The inscriptions are (note that the S's are backwards):
Obverse (bear) - MONETA BERNENSIS (coinage of Bern)
Reverse (cross) - SANCTVS VINCENCIVS (Saint Vincent)
(The style of lettering can be compared, with, for example, a 14th-century brooch shown here on page 2, also with reversed S's and closed-up E's; with a 1497 inscription showing A's with the same kind of top horizontal bar (though there it also has the interior one); etc. No doubt someone with greater expertise in medieval paleography could find better examples.)
It looks fairly similar to a coin shown at http://www.beastcoins.com/Topical/Bears/Switzerland/Bears-Switzerland.htm, under "Canton of Bern - 1400's." The size there about matches what you measured, and the description there says that it was a 5 Heller coin, and that its type is described in HMZ 167. (HMZ-Katalog, published in 1977 and reissued in 2006, is a standard reference for coins from Switzerland and Liechtenstein since the 1500s.)
I don't have the HMZ-Katalog, but this auction listing has the type as minted between 1492 and 1528.
In comments, LangLangC has found another listing that gives instead HMZ 166a and dates it still earlier, to 1400-1425. Someone with access to that catalog would have to take a look, then, and see which one this coin more closely resembles.
At any rate, it's quite a bit older than your father thought it was!
More post
- 📝 Who presided over the election and swearing in of the first Speaker of the House?
- 📝 Why weren't pickled fruits and vegetables part of (European) rations during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 Do we know what ancient Roman music sounded like?
- 📝 How would a WW1 pilot signal a request to surrender in-flight?
- 📝 How were ethnographic maps in the 19th century made?
- 📝 Is the ancient altar with petroglyphs at the foot of Jabal Maqla Mt. Sinai?
- 📝 Are the Windsors English?
- 📝 Why was the Hexamillion wall incapable of preventing invasion?
- 📝 What was the relative social status of a "grazier" in Victorian England?
- 📝 What is the altitude record for manned unpressurised balloon flight without oxygen?
- 📝 Cold War proxy countries views on nationalism or decolonization?
- 📝 How effective were longbow archers against plate-armored infantry?
- 📝 Why did Nepal and Bhutan not become a part of India like other princely states when colonial rule ended?
- 📝 Why didn't the Allies use a naval invasion to retake Norway?
- 📝 How did people sleep on historic ship types?
- 📝 Why did Italian artillery perform so badly during WWII?
- 📝 How was the Karwendel railway important to Germany's plans for WW1?
- 📝 Why is there a difference in ordinal numbers of UK General Elections and Parliaments? Was a UK Parliament ever formed without an election?
- 📝 How was the current month and day disseminated to the townspeople of Medieval Europe?
- 📝 Did ramming tank battle tactics occur in WW2?
- 📝 What autonomy did Bosnia lose when it was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908?
- 📝 Did Archery evolve independently on separate continents?
- 📝 Is it true that Operation Popeye had a trial run in India - code name project Gromet?
- 📝 Did Akhenaten's religion influence early Judaism?
- 📝 Early attempts to abolish slavery in USA
- 📝 Did generals really fight in ancient China?
- 📝 Looking for a particular documentary about the history of long distance communication
- 📝 Why did Canada not join the American Revolution?
- 📝 Is it true that "All spicy food is from Latin America"?
- 📝 Why didn't Stalin use force to bring Tito into line?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is this 17th century Swiss coin?
- 📝 What is the flag in this 17th century painting?
- 📝 What coin is this and where is it from? Thai script, Thai arms. Rev: left facing portrait
- 📝 What did the top minds of the late 17th century have to say about Salem witch trials?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me what this coin was used for, an approximate date and possibly what it’s worth?
- 📝 What is the painting within this 17th c. painting?
- 📝 How do I interpret this 17th century English ledger?
- 📝 What are these items in this 16th century plan of an English town?
- 📝 What does this Swiss banner/blazon/coat of arms/flag stand for?
- 📝 What is the original source of this 16th century image of a French town holiday with musicians in a tree?
- 📝 What uniform is the man in this mid to late 19th century photo wearing?
- 📝 What sorts of people were popular celebrities in 17th to 19th century Europe?
- 📝 What are specific parts of this 19th century dress called?
- 📝 What is this 18th or 19th century muzzle gun recently used in a robbery?
- 📝 What is this 19th century British army uniform?
- 📝 What education path had to be followed to study law in 17th century Europe?
- 📝 What honorifics and forms of address were appropriate for 17th century Spanish nobility?
- 📝 What was the purpose of tunnel fighting in a 17th century siege?
- 📝 What mysterious Flemish peasant activity is depicted in this painting?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 What do the numbers on this 1960s anti-integration sign mean?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 Did Rothschild say this famous quote? If yes, what did he mean by it?
- 📝 Why could China keep most of the lands it conquered after 17th century but European powers could not?
- 📝 What is this symbol in a financial record from Wisconsin, USA, in 1860?
- 📝 What is the date and original source of this medieval picture?
- 📝 What are the text and subtext of this 1949 Soviet cartoon?
- 📝 What is the object moving across the ceiling in this stock footage?
- 📝 What is this household object from early 1900s rural Russia?
- 📝 Anyone know what this stone building is?