Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/4 Thaler - Albert of Hohenzollern Klippe
| Issuer | Teutonic Order |
|---|---|
| Year | 1520-1521 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Copper |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | An ornate cross with splayed terminals occupies the central field, with the Imperial eagle displayed on an escutcheon at the center intersection of the cross arms, its wings spread and details rendered in hammered relief. The date of issue appears in the surrounding margin legend. The overall composition is characteristic of early sixteenth-century German hammered klippe coinage, with the design confined within the square-format flan. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Albert of Hohenzollern was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia — he secularized the Order's Prussian territory in 1525, converting to Lutheranism and becoming the first Duke of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. This klippe dates to the immediate precursor of that rupture, struck during the Polish-Teutonic War of 1519–1521 when the Order's finances were under severe strain. Emergency square-cut coinage of this type was produced partly to pay mercenary troops.
The copper composition rather than silver is notable — and unusual for a fractional thaler denomination — likely reflecting the Order's depleted treasury in its final years as a sovereign minting authority.