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1/2 Groat (półgrosz) - Sigismund II Augustus (2d eagle)
| Issuer | Grand Duchy of Lithuania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1546-1569 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.35 g |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, the Jagiellonian eagle displayed with wings spread, head turned to the left, rendered in a bold hammered style characteristic of mid-16th century Lithuanian coinage. The eagle's feathers are elaborately detailed, with talons prominently splayed at the base. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, divided by asterisk stops, identifying the issuing monarch as Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Sigismund II Augustus ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as the last Jagiellonian monarch, and the półgrosz series issued under his name spans the entire arc of his reign — a period during which the Union of Lublin (1569) would ultimately dissolve the duchy's separate monetary identity into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The sheer volume of Kopicki reference numbers here reflects not collector pedantry but genuine die proliferation: Vilnius mint workers churned through an enormous number of working dies across these decades, producing measurable variation in punch placement, die alignment, and legend spelling that specialists have been cataloguing since the 19th century.
The fineness reduction in 1558, from .375 to .344 silver, was deliberate policy — part of broader currency debasement tied to the financial pressures of the Livonian War, which began that same year.