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 Pfennig
| Issuer | City of Magdeburg (German States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1621 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | 1623 |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The arms of Magdeburg — a crowned eagle displayed — occupy the central field of this small hammered copper pfennig. The design is rendered in a crude, bold relief characteristic of emergency coinage struck during the Kipper und Wipper period. The date 1621 appears within or adjacent to the armorial device. The flan is irregular and slightly ragged at the edges, consistent with hand-cut planchet production of the era. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse of this hammered copper pfennig is essentially uniface or bears only a plain, undifferentiated field with no legible device or legend, as is typical of the smallest denomination emergency coinage issued by Magdeburg during the Kipper und Wipper inflation crisis of the early 1620s. Surface shows characteristic copper patination with areas of green oxidation. |
| 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 |
Magdeburg in 1621 was a city under extreme pressure — the Thirty Years' War had been grinding through German territories for three years, and the breakdown of normal imperial monetary supply forced dozens of municipal authorities to strike emergency copper coinage. Magdeburg's situation was particularly acute: the city would endure a catastrophic siege culminating in its near-total destruction and massacre in May 1631, killing an estimated 20,000 residents. These municipal issues were struck precisely because trust in larger denominational coinage had collapsed during the Kipper- und Wipperzeit, the inflationary currency crisis of 1619–1623.