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1/2 Thaler
| Issuer | City of St. Gallen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1620 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, the rampant bear of St. Gallen faces left, rendered in detailed relief with raised forepaw and open jaws, serving as the civic heraldic symbol of the city. The surrounding Latin legend reads * MO:NO:CIVIT:SANGALLENSIS·1620, with the date 1620 incorporated into the inscription. The design is struck on a square klippe flan with characteristically irregular edges typical of early 17th-century hammered coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
St. Gallen occupied an unusual position in the early seventeenth century — a free imperial city technically independent of the powerful Abbey of St. Gallen that shared its name and geography. That tension shaped local politics for generations. The city's right to strike silver coinage was itself a marker of that hard-won autonomy, exercised jealously against both abbatial and cantonal pressure.
1620 places this piece squarely in the opening act of the Thirty Years' War, when Swiss monetary markets absorbed considerable flight capital from the German lands. Increased demand for sound silver coin was a practical consequence.