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1/4 Thaler - August
| Issuer | Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1637-1655 |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Reverse description | Central field depicts the traditional Wildman (Wilder Mann) of Brunswick standing facing, his body covered with foliage, grasping a large uprooted fir tree in his right hand with additional pine trees visible in the background landscape. The figure stands on a grassy ground line, wearing a leafy girdle, and is framed within a beaded inner circle. The surrounding legend carries the ducal motto ALLES MIT BEDACHT (All with deliberation) along with the date ANNO, with the year appearing in the exergual area of the legend. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
August the Younger ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1635 until his death in 1666, inheriting a principality devastated by the Thirty Years' War. The 1637 start date for this issue coincides almost exactly with the catastrophic Imperial occupation and plundering of Wolfenbüttel, which fell to Imperial forces that same year. That August managed to sustain a coinage program at all during the mid-war years speaks to the administrative resilience of his court — and to the practical necessity of maintaining circulating silver in a territory constantly being stripped of its resources.
August was also the bibliophile who assembled the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, at the time the largest library in Europe. The coinage ended four years before his death, likely reflecting post-war monetary consolidation across the Lower Saxon Circle.