1/4 Thaler - August Pattern

Patterns of this type were almost certainly produced as presentation pieces for August the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, whose court at Wolfenbüttel had become one of the more remarkable intellectual centers in the German lands — he assembled what was then the largest library in Europe. A gold striking of a silver denomination is a well-documented court practice: the piece was never intended for circulation but rather for gifting to diplomats or favored scholars during the Thirty Years' War, which was still grinding through its final years when this was struck.