Catalog
1/2 Guldentaler
| Issuer | Augsburg, Free city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1560-1564 |
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| Reference(s) | MB#63, Forst/Schm#37 |
| Obverse description | The city arms of Augsburg — the celebrated pine cone (Pyr) mounted atop a decorative column with a winged heraldic mask at its base — displayed prominently in the center of the field within a beaded inner circle. The Roman numeral date M·DLX appears in the circumferential Latin legend, reading · M · DLX · AVGVSTA · VINDELICORVM ·, identifying the city by its ancient Roman name Augusta Vindelicorum. The design is rendered in a bold, high-relief Renaissance style characteristic of Augsburg civic coinage of the mid-sixteenth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Augsburg's half guldentaler issues of this period were struck during the city's peak as a financial hub of the Holy Roman Empire, when the Fugger and Welser banking dynasties were channeling Spanish American silver through its mints. The guldentaler denomination itself had been standardized by the 1559 Augsburg Reichsmünzordnung — the imperial coinage ordinance that attempted, with only partial success, to rationalize the chaotic patchwork of German monetary standards.
Free city status gave Augsburg's mint masters considerable latitude, and the half denomination served trade circuits where the full guldentaler was too large for everyday commercial settlement.