| Excerpt |
The author presents a Moldavian privy mark (countermark) that is applied on a Polish seventeenth century coin, from a private collection. The use of official countermarks on foreign coins in Wallachia and Moldavia is rare. Private countermarking is practically unknown to Romanian medieval monetary practice, although in neighboring countries it is a frequent practice. Forgeries of private and official countermarks could be made very easy, using simple tools. This could be the reason of the rare usage of both types of countermarks in Moldavia. The coin in question is very worn, not only from intense circulation but also due to the low quality minting. It is a 30 groats specimen issued between 1663-1666, this type of groats were also known as tymfs or tynfs, named after the mint master Andreas Timpff. This denomination was known and used, although it does not appear in Moldavian documents of that epoch. As an argument, the author uses the inscription in Cyrillic, ior i that represents the abbreviation of the name Tympff. The purpose of this countermark is to guarantee the authenticity and the value of this poorly struck coin. The author suggests that the engraver must have been also a money changer, judging from his knowledge of the coin type, its appearance and also its value on the market. |