Interesting 1550 Alphabet Coin I Found

Full Metal Digger

Active member
Hello friends,
I was able to get out this last Sunday to that castle ruins about 15 miles from my home. The castle was built in the late 12th century with the first recorded reference being in 1237. I spent about 3 hours hiking around looking for good spots to detect and settled on a flat area. Right away I began finding bits of medieval iron bits and nails (I'm still cleaning all that stuff up). Here is a coin I found. It is a "Nuremberg Rechenmeister" counting coin used by the money counters. "Rechenmeister" translates to arithmetic master. The front depicts a money counter at his table and the back depicts the alphabet that was current in 1550. The coin is copper and is in pretty good shape for being in the ground almost 471 years! The front is toasted but the back is in pretty good nick. Some things to notice about the alphabet of 1550: Backwards D, no J, no V (the one you see is U), and no W. After doing some research I believe the coin depicts Johann Neudörffer the Elder. I can't find anything to back that up but check out his story in Wikipedia!

Here is some pics and thanks for looking!
 

Attachments

  • burg-graefenstein.jpg
    burg-graefenstein.jpg
    83.1 KB · Views: 187
  • 1550s Nurnberg Jeton.jpg
    1550s Nurnberg Jeton.jpg
    64.8 KB · Views: 182
  • IMG_1725.jpg
    IMG_1725.jpg
    84.9 KB · Views: 185
  • IMG_1730.jpg
    IMG_1730.jpg
    72.4 KB · Views: 190
cool place and cool coin , many cultures used the letter "I" for both the "J and I" until the mid 1700's , also on many of my King George coins "Georgius" is spelled with a "U and sometimes a V" george-half-penny-fade-orig.jpggeorge ii.jpg
 
That is one of the coolest coins I've ever seen, Dave! :wow:

So cool that it has the alphabet from 1550 on it. Amazing piece of history! You gotta love it!

"the back is in pretty good nick"

Uh oh, he's picking up the local colloquialisms. Next thing you know he'll be calling us all "mate".
:lol:
 
Interesting coin find! Do you use topo maps and GPS to scout your areas? Just wondering, I study topo's to scout prospective areas regularly.
 
Last edited:
Such an interesting find, Dave! It's been such a rewarding trip for you. Have your been posting vids of your adventures?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
23,571
Messages
238,096
Members
3,786
Latest member
HistoryFanBG
Back
Top