The Magi, also known as the Three Wise Men or The Three Kings Coins

Authentic, highly sought-after Medieval Silver Ducats issued by DRACULA’s Family

by Historic Real Treasures

Wallachia (in Romanian, Ţara Românească or "The Romanian Land") was founded in 1290 by a noble from Transylvania named Radu Negru. Wallachia was dominated by Hungary until 1330 when became independent. A descent of Radu Negru was Dracula's grandfather, Prince Mircea the Elder, who reigned from 1386-1418. Mircea the Elder fought to keep Walachia independent from the Turks with limited success. His family continued to rule Walachia, but under the authority of the Ottoman Turks. The throne of Walachia didn’t pass automatically from the king to his older son. Usually the prince was elected by the landowning nobles. Every election was an occasion for a violent struggle within the family. Eventually the royal House of Wallachia was divided into two groups: Mircea's descendants, and the descendants of Dan II, known as The Danesti. Mircea had an illegitimate son, Vlad II, born approximately in 1390. He grew up in the court of King Sigismund of Hungary, first as a hostage and later as a page. Sigismund, who became the Holy Roman Emperor in 1410, founded a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon. The Order of the Dragon professed to sustain Catholicism and fight Turkey. Vlad II was admitted to the Order in about 1431. The nobles of Walachia started to call him Dracul, meaning "dragon." Vlad II Dracul's second son would be known as Dracula, or "son of the dragon." Dracul also meant "devil."

In 1447, during a period of war with Hungary, Vlad II and Dracula's older brother were killed in battle. A confused period followed, with control of Wallachia slipping into Hungarian hands. Prince Dracula was released from his Hungarian confinement and sent back home to rule Wallachia. A condition of his return was that he also had to obey the Sultan in Constantinople. But Prince Dracula was soon overthrown by a rival and had to escape. When he recovered the throne in 1456 his first order of business was to build a stronghold for safety. With the help of several hundred noble families captured in his realm, who had to work as simple slaves, he built his stronghold high up in the mountains, close to the northern Wallachian town of Tirgoviste.

More than a half decade of terror followed. The first move of Vlad the Impaler was to revenge his father’s death. Then he eliminated his enemies in a seemingly endless massacre. Thousands were killed in Wallachia. The rage in Prince Dracula made him go beyond just killing. He tortured his victims. His preferred method of torture and execution was impalement.

Impalement was a horrible means of execution. The victim was impaled between the legs upon a large sharpened stake and hoisted upright in the air. The weight of the victim’s body would impale him on the stake. Vlad III Dracula enjoyed mass executions, where many victims were impaled at once. In order to savor these brutal spectacles, Vlad III Dracula would place the impaled victims in front of and around his banquet table and dine surrounded by his "forest of the impaled". It was these horrible acts that got him the nickname Tepes, which in Romanian means "Impaler".

The coinage that circulated in reign of “Dracula” bore the name and type of his grandfather Mircea the Elder. Prince Vlad III Dracula either did not strike any coinage, or, more likely and for obvious political reasons, continued to strike coinage in his father’s name. The coinage of Mircea and his Son Vlad II Dracul, father of Dracula, was minted in the system of ducat and ban. These types are known:

Type I. the common type
Obverse: coat of arms - divided shield;
Reverse: Eagle perched left on helmet, having 3 subtypes: A) Latin legend; B) Slavic legend; C) bilingual legend

Type II. the obverse has the ruler's portrait surrounded by a Slavic legend. Several reverse subtypes are known:

Subtype II a) reverse with the portrait Jesus Christ. b) The reverse with the eagle perched left on helmet, set on tilted shield, Slavic legend and c) Reverse with the eagle but with the Latin legend with PETRVS

Any coin of Mircea the Elder/ Dracula is scarce in very fine quality. Depending upon the type, some are rare like Type II in all its subtypes. A Type I is a more available coin, but still scarce. The only affordable and available coins related to the family of the Prince Dracula are the coins minted in the name of Mircea the Elder. His son Vlad II Dracul also minted coins, but these coins in the smaller denomination of a Ban are impossible to find. Only about 8 specimens are known and almost all are in museums. Coins bearing the name of Vlad III Dracula are not known to exist.

References:

The McNally, Raymond T. & Florescu, Radu. In Search of Dracula. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. ISBN 0-395-65783-0

Miller, Elizabeth. Dracula: Sense & Nonsense. 2nd ed. Desert Island Books, 2006. ISBN 1-905328-15-X

Florescu, Radu R.; McNally, Raymond T. (1994). In Search of Dracula. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-65783-0.

Treptow, Kurt W. (2000). Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula. Center for Romanian Studies. ISBN 973-98392-2-3.

Babinger, Franz (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691010786.

Coin Sample (TypeII):

Type IIb. Silver ducat. 0.6 grams. 14mm
Obverse: IWMdVaB : King Mircea, grandfather of Dracula, standing and holding upright spear and globus cruciger.
Reverse: Similar legend in Slavic, the Wallachian crest (Royal eagle standing left, head right, on armored medieval helmet) set on tilted shield.