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½ Groat - Sigismund II Augustus Contemporary forgery
| Issuer | |
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| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 0.6 mm |
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| Obverse description | Central field displays a spread eagle facing forward with head turned to the left, rendered in a noticeably crude and distorted manner characteristic of contemporary forgeries. The design closely imitates the royal arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as used under Sigismund II Augustus. A blundered Latin legend encircles the eagle, with irregular letter spacing and deformed letterforms throughout. The overall execution reflects the work of an unofficial die-cutter seeking to replicate the official royal coinage. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | * SIGIS * AVG * REX * PO * MAG * DVX * LI |
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| Additional information |
Contemporary forgeries of Sigismund II Augustus billon half-groats circulated widely during the mid-sixteenth century, exploiting the chronic small-change shortage that plagued the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's retail economy. The official issues themselves varied considerably in silver content across mints at Vilnius, Kraków, and Gdańsk, which made debased imitations difficult for ordinary users to detect and easier for forgers to pass without suspicion.
The reduced weight against official specification is the primary diagnostic here — surviving forgeries of this type typically show improvised die work and uneven flan preparation consistent with clandestine striking rather than file adjustment after the fact.