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1/2 Thaler
| Issuer | Nuremberg, Free imperial city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1621-1624 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 14.5 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | MONETA ARGENTEA REIPVB NVRENBERG |
| Reverse description | A large double-headed imperial eagle displayed in the center field, with both heads crowned and facing outward, the breast unornamented. The eagle's wings are finely detailed with feathering rendered in the hammered style typical of early seventeenth-century German coinage. A crown surmounts the composition at the top. The circular Latin legend naming Emperor Ferdinand II surrounds the eagle within a beaded border, with the inscription reading continuously around the field. |
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| Additional information |
Nuremberg struck these half thalers during the opening years of the Thirty Years' War, when the city's status as a free imperial city made it a critical — and increasingly pressured — node between Protestant and Catholic factions. The municipal council had authorized expanded silver coinage partly to manage the financial demands of fortification and mercenary contracts, and partly to assert fiscal independence at a moment when that independence was genuinely in question.
The Kipper und Wipper crisis of 1619–1622 had debased coinage across the German states so thoroughly that full-weight municipal silver carried a premium simply for being honest metal. Nuremberg's reputation for reliable striking made its issues circulate well beyond city limits.