Unknown medieval silver coin in nice condition

5 posts • viewed 117 times

Hi

I have a problem with finding out where does it come from. I can see parts of legends like MON ARG but DVD TEP (?) don't give me any more clues. At first I tried to search through english coins to no avail.

 

1.1g + 18mm

 

It looks Iberian to me (maybe?)  but I don;t recognize it.

 

First photo appears to have DVC TER — ETO

Second photo probably MON ARG SEM---  

 

Maybe that will help.

Unfortunately I still have problems with identifing this coin.

So, if there is ETO + DVC TER

 

DVC = dux?

TER = tertio?

ETO = ?

I see a lot of possibilities to link this coin to Sicily, but I don;t think any of these guesses are correct:

DVC TER - there was a coin called a ducalis, and denomination ⅓ ducalis was struck with legend TERCIA DVCALIS:  https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=915443

Slightly earlier in the 12th century there was a mint in the town of MILETO which was ruled by a member of the same family.   This could provide the rest of the legend in the first photo DVC TER (MIL) ETO.  

 

But…

That mint is not known to have struck silver coins, and the full ducalis was never struck there, only in Palermo. 

 

In the second photo, the letters in the corners of the cross could me MESS for Messina, another Sicilian mint.

 

But none of this fits together, unless this is a fantasy coin made by someone trying to evoke a medieval Sicilian coin by combining elements that never really appeared together.

 

Hopefully someone else will be able to identify it.  

I've watched this coin again and I see that the all elements of the coin including a legend look very similar.

There are no irregularities between parts of the coin and I have an impression that a medieval coin dice should left some details more sharp and others more faded…

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