The "Glockentaler" — bell thaler — takes its name from the inscription cast around the coin's edge, a verse from Schiller's "Das Lied von der Glocke" predating the poem itself by over 150 years. The actual source is a German proverb circulating since the medieval period: Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango — I call the living, I mourn the dead, I break the lightning. August, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, had this struck during the closing years of the Thirty Years' War, when the duchy was under severe military and financial pressure.
The Dav ST prefix distinguishes it as a Schautaler — a presentation piece rather than a circulation coin, which accounts for the survival rate in finer grades.
The "Glockentaler" — bell thaler — takes its name from the inscription cast around the coin's edge, a verse from Schiller's "Das Lied von der Glocke" predating the poem itself by over 150 years. The actual source is a German proverb circulating since the medieval period: Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango — I call the living, I mourn the dead, I break the lightning. August, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, had this struck during the closing years of the Thirty Years' War, when the duchy was under severe military and financial pressure.
The Dav ST prefix distinguishes it as a Schautaler — a presentation piece rather than a circulation coin, which accounts for the survival rate in finer grades.