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Old 18th September 2020, 09:52 AM   #1
AHorsa
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Default Coat of Arms of Coucy - messengers badge?

Hi there,

although it is not an arm or armour but a coat of arms, I hope someone can help here. I recently got this coat of arms. It measures 7.5 x 6cm and weights 35 g. The shield itselfs seems to be made from bronze or copper with an attached layer of silver or another "white" metal (see also 3rd image). According the paper note on the backside it was found in the river of Seine.

The CoA is the one of the Maison de Coucy: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_de_Coucy

It seems that the potentially blue parts are already gone. I canīt tell from what material the red areas are made. The white metal represents the white areas of the blason.

Is it possible that this shield is a messengers badge?
I found some examples here (which of course are larger and from much better quality):
https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results#!/search?q=messenger%20badge

What do you think about its possible age?

Looking forward to your comments!

Best regards
Andreas
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Old 20th September 2020, 07:57 PM   #2
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No ideas?
The shape of the shield indicates 13th century. At this time the Coucies have been one of the most powerful families in france. I wonder if this blazon could really be from that period.
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Old 20th September 2020, 08:11 PM   #3
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Andreas, perhaps best to move this to the Miscellania forum .
Great find, by the way .
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Old 21st September 2020, 10:37 AM   #4
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Thank you Fernando!
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Old 21st September 2020, 12:25 PM   #5
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This appears to be a very old object.
I hope someone can throw some light into this interesting item's history.
Angles to take into account:
It is quite a long way from Coucy to the river Seine; wonder how it got there ... and gor how long it stood in the bottom of the river.
We may assume that, the paper tag on its back must have been placed right after it was found ... by someone fishing ?
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Old 21st September 2020, 09:06 PM   #6
Oliver Pinchot
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A DISTANT MIRROR, by Barbara Tuchman, 1978, concerns the de Coucy family.
It's quite detailed; perhaps it can offer some insight.
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