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!
1/8 Thaler - Frederick II Bicentenary of the Reformation
| Issuer | Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (German States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1717 |
| Type | Commemorative circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| 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 | A radiant sun shining down upon a landscape scene, symbolising the light of the Reformation illuminating the world. The curved legend VI DISVTIT appears above the central device, referencing the dispersal of darkness by evangelical truth. The fractional value 1/8 is displayed in an oval cartouche above the exergue, which contains a two-line inscription including the Roman numeral date MDCCXVII commemorating the bicentenary of the Lutheran Reformation. The overall composition reflects the devotional and commemorative character typical of early 18th-century German Reformation Jubilee coinage. |
| 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 |
The 1717 Reformation bicentenary triggered one of the largest coordinated commemorative coin programs in the history of the German states. Dozens of Protestant territories issued pieces that year, each positioning their ruling house as a faithful steward of Luther's legacy — a pointed political statement in a Holy Roman Empire still fractured along confessional lines a century after the Thirty Years' War. Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg under Frederick II was a particularly devout Lutheran court, and participation was never merely ceremonial.
Frederick II died just two years later in 1719, making his commemorative issues a short window within an already minor ducal series.