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 Groschen Tournois
| Issuer | Aachen, Free imperial city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1419 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Hammered |
| 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 | Latin (uncial) |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Large cross pattée centred in the field, inspired by the Tournois gros type, with a beaded inner circle enclosing the cross and dividing the two concentric legends. The inner legend contains the date and city reference, while the outer legend names the mint city Aachen (AQVS') and identifies the coin as urban coinage (MONETA VRB'). The two-line legend arrangement separated by a beaded border is characteristic of the Groschen Tournois tradition as adopted by Rhenish minting authorities in the early fifteenth century. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Aachen's right to strike silver coinage was a perpetual flashpoint with the archbishops of Cologne, who claimed overlapping monetary authority in the region throughout the fifteenth century. This groschen tournois type — modeled on the French gros tournois but thoroughly germanized in execution — reflects the city's insistence on exercising its imperial minting privilege independently, a privilege confirmed and re-confirmed by successive emperors precisely because it was so frequently contested. The tournois form had been commercially dominant in Rhineland trade for over a century by 1419, which explains the conservative typological choice long after the French prototype had itself evolved.