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 Heller - Frederick II
| Issuer | Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1695-1696 |
| 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 | 20 mm |
| 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 | Central field displays the quartered arms of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, consisting of the barry of ten or and sable of Saxony with a rampant green crancelin, impaled with the fields of Gotha and Altenburg, all surmounted by a ducal crown. The shield is flanked on either side by a decorative palm or laurel branch, lending a heraldic and baroque character to the design. The coin bears no peripheral legend on this face, with the armorial composition occupying the full field within a beaded border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was among the most administratively peculiar of the Ernestine duchies — Frederick II ruled a territory so fragmented by the division of 1680 that coherent fiscal policy was nearly impossible. Small copper heller struck in the mid-1690s filled a genuine gap in daily transaction coinage, the silver groschen being too valuable for most market exchanges in an agrarian economy.
The two-year production window of 1695–96 suggests a single authorized issue rather than ongoing mintage, consistent with how the smaller Thuringian courts managed copper: in batches, when local need demanded it.