Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Dinheiro 'Pentagram'- Afonso I
| Issuer | Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1169-1185 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Libra (1st Dynasty, 1128-1383) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central field dominated by a large five-pointed star (pentagram) with radiating lines extending from its vertices toward the coin's periphery, creating a sunburst effect characteristic of early Portuguese hammered coinage. The pentagram is rendered in a bold, primitive style typical of 12th-century Iberian minting practice. The irregular flan exhibits the characteristic uneven surfaces of hammered billon coinage of the period. The surrounding field is largely unadorned, with the legend distributed around the periphery in crude but legible Latin lettering. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (1169-1185) |
| Additional information |
Afonso Henriques was already in his sixties when these were struck — an old man by medieval standards, the first king of a realm that had only formally existed since 1143, when the Treaty of Zamora compelled Castile to recognize Portuguese independence. The Church hadn't fully caught up: papal recognition came only in 1179, meaning some of these coins circulated under a king whose royal title Rome had not yet endorsed.
The billon content here is characteristic of Iberian monetary pragmatism during the Reconquista, when silver was perpetually diverted toward military campaigns rather than coinage.