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 - Eberhard IV
| Issuer | Königstein, Counts of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1522-1533 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Hammered |
| 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 shield bearing the four-fold quartered arms of Eppstein-Münzenberg, enclosed within a beaded inner circle. The date 1527 is inscribed above the shield in the upper field. The circular legend MONETA*NOVA*NORDLING runs around the periphery, partially inverted at the base as is characteristic of hammered coinage of the period. The overall design is executed in a bold, late-Gothic heraldic style typical of early sixteenth-century German minor coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | MONETA*NOVA*NORDLING 1527 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Königstein was a small imperial county in the Taunus region, and the counts had limited but real minting rights granted under the broader framework of imperial coinage privileges. Eberhard IV was the last Count of Königstein; when he died in 1535 without a legitimate heir, the county passed to the Archbishopric of Mainz. This coin was struck in the final decade of his rule, during which the Protestant Reformation was fracturing the political and ecclesiastical alliances on which small Rhenish lordships depended for survival.
The Batzen denomination itself originated in Bern around 1492 and spread rapidly across the German-speaking lands as a convenient mid-value silver piece. Königstein's adoption of it reflects the denomination's dominance in regional trade by the early sixteenth century.