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1/2 Thaler - August Death
| Issuer | Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1666 |
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| Value | 1/2 Thaler |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse depicts a bare, withered tree standing in a barren landscape, with a human skull positioned at the base of the trunk, symbolizing mortality and the transience of earthly glory. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, itself constructed as a triple chronogram that encodes the year of the Duke's death, 1666 (MDCLXVI), three times within its text. The composition is rendered in a somber baroque allegorical style, consistent with German Sterbtaler (death thaler) iconography of the mid-seventeenth century. The motto SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI forms the culminating phrase of the legend, reinforcing the memento mori theme of the issue. |
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| Additional information |
Duke August the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel died in March 1666 at the age of 88 — extraordinarily old for a seventeenth-century German prince. He had ruled for nearly three decades and built one of the largest private libraries in Europe at Wolfenbüttel, a collection that survives today as the Herzog August Bibliothek. Memorial coinage was a well-established Brunswickian tradition, and the ducal mint moved quickly to produce mourning issues across multiple denominations. The 43mm flan required for a half thaler gave the Wolfenbüttel engravers considerably more working surface than the smaller memorial pieces in the same series.