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1 Thaler
| Issuer | Hamburg, Free Hanseatic city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1588 |
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| Currency | Thaler (1552-1674) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The Hamburg city arms depicted as a fortified castle or gate with three towers, each surmounted by a crown, set upon a crenellated wall above a checkerboard base, all within a beaded inner circle. The circular legend MONETA. NOVA. CIVITATIS. HAMBVRG. runs along the outer border in Latin script, reading clockwise. The design is rendered in the bold, somewhat archaic style characteristic of late sixteenth-century German hammered coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | MONETA. NOVA. CIVITATIS. HAMBVRG |
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| Additional information |
Hamburg struck thalers in the late sixteenth century as the city's merchant banking sector was absorbing massive capital flight from Antwerp, whose commercial dominance collapsed after the Spanish Fury of 1576 and the subsequent closure of the Scheldt in 1585. The city needed hard, trusted silver coinage to settle the international trade contracts increasingly flowing through the Elbe rather than the Flemish ports.
Gaedechens 344 places this squarely in the sequence before Hamburg established its famous Banco in 1619, meaning this thaler circulated in a period when the city's monetary credibility rested entirely on the physical silver itself rather than any institutional backing.