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1/2 Thaler - John Aloys I Sebastiansgulden
| Issuer | Öttingen-Spielberg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1759 |
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| Currency | Thaler |
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| Obverse description | Crowned quartered shield of arms with supporters — a lion rampant to the left and a lion rampant to the right — flanking the centrally placed baroque cartouche. The date 1759 is divided across the field, with '17' to the left and '59' to the right of the shield. A rectangular frame below the arms bears the denomination legend 'XX EINE FEINE MARCK' in two lines, indicating the coin's fineness and value relationship. The entire design is set within a milled border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Johann Aloys I ruled Öttingen-Spielberg as a tiny Imperial County within the Holy Roman Empire, issuing coins by right of his status as a Reichsgraf. The Sebastiansgulden designation links this piece to the feast of Saint Sebastian on January 20th — a practice among Catholic German nobility of issuing devotional half-thalers tied to a patron saint's day, functioning partly as gifts and partly as demonstration of confessional identity during a period when religious politics still carried real weight in the southwestern Empire.
The 1759 date places production squarely in the Seven Years' War, when silver supplies and minting priorities across the Empire were severely disrupted. Small county issues like this one were struck in limited numbers and rarely circulated far beyond the issuing territory.