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!
1/2 Batzen - Charles V / Ferdinand I
| Issuer | Austrian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1519-1521 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/2 Batzen = 2 Kreuzer (1⁄30) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 displays the Austrian fess shield flanked by the initials W and H (for Wiener Hausgenossen, the Vienna mint association), struck in hammered relief. A small shield bearing a cross appears within the surrounding legend. The circular Latin legend reads ARCHIDVX AV / STRIE followed by the date, referencing the Archduke of Austria title held jointly by Charles V and Ferdinand I. The overall composition is characteristic of early sixteenth-century Habsburg hammered silver coinage, with irregular flan and bold, Gothic-influenced die-work. |
|---|---|
| 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 | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The overlap of Charles V and Ferdinand I on a single issue reflects the administrative handoff that followed Maximilian I's death in January 1519. Charles inherited the Burgundian and Spanish titles while Ferdinand received the Austrian hereditary lands, but the transition took months to formalize — coins struck during this window sometimes carried both names as the mints hedged against jurisdictional uncertainty. The Batzen denomination itself was a product of Swiss monetary innovation, adopted across southern German and Austrian territories in the early sixteenth century to address chronic shortages of mid-value silver coinage.