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1/8 Thaler - William V Death of Amalia Elisabeth
| Issuer | Hesse-Cassel |
|---|---|
| Year | 1651 |
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| Value | 1/8 Thaler |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The entire obverse field is occupied by a nine-line Latin funerary inscription in bold raised lettering, recording the name, birth date, virtues, regency, and date of death of Landgravine Amalia Elisabeth of Hesse-Cassel. The outer legend, running along the coin's circumference, bears the full titular inscription identifying the deceased as Landgravine of Hesse and Countess of Hanau. Arabic numerals are used for both the birth year (1602) and death year (1651), the latter flanked by the mintmaster's initials 'A' and 'G' in the final line. The lettering is executed in the characteristic broad, slightly irregular style of mid-seventeenth-century German hammered coinage. No portrait or figurative element appears; the inscription itself constitutes the sole decorative and informational programme of the obverse. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Amalia Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg served as regent of Hesse-Cassel from 1637 until her death in 1651, steering the landgraviate through the final years of the Thirty Years' War with enough diplomatic skill to secure favorable terms at Westphalia in 1648. This memorial issue was struck under her son William V shortly after her death — a standard practice among German Protestant dynasties of the period, where funeral coins served both as dynastic propaganda and as distributed mourning gifts to the court.
Müseler catalogues several varieties of this emission, distinguishing them by die differences in the inscription placement.