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1 Ducat - Frederick Charles Joseph of Erthal
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Mainz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1795 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.5 g |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing draped bust of Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, wearing ecclesiastical vestments with a fur-trimmed cope and a powdered wig with rolled side curls, rendered in high relief against a plain field. The portrait is executed in the late Baroque style characteristic of late 18th-century German ecclesiastical coinage. A circular Latin legend surrounds the effigy, reading FRID CAR IOS A EP ET EL MOG EP W, identifying the issuer as Archbishop and Elector of Mainz and Bishop of Worms. The engraver's initials F.S. (for August Friedrich Stieler) appear below the bust truncation. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A detailed panoramic cityscape of Mainz as seen from the Rhine River occupies the central field, depicting the city's characteristic skyline with numerous church spires, towers, and fortifications rendered in fine engraving. The Rhine is shown in the foreground with small vessels navigating its waters, conveying the city's importance as a river trading center. The curved legend AVREA MOGVNTIA (Golden Mainz) arches above the cityscape in capital letters. Below the city view, within a recessed exergual panel, the date in Roman numerals MDCCLXXXXV and the mint inspector's initials I.A. (for Joseph Aatz) are inscribed. |
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| Additional information |
Frederick Charles Joseph von Erthal was among the last ecclesiastical princes to govern Mainz before the French Revolutionary armies ended a millennium of clerical rule in the Rhineland. The city fell to French forces in October 1792, was briefly retaken, then fell again in 1793 — meaning much of Erthal's final years as Archbishop were spent effectively displaced from his own seat. He died in February 1802, by which point the Archbishopric as a temporal power had already ceased to exist.
A ducat struck in 1795 belongs to the death throes of the institution itself, minted while the political order that justified its production was actively collapsing west of the Rhine.