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1 Thaler Centenary of the Reformation
| Issuer | Magdeburg, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1617 |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Reverse description | Two half-length figures facing one another across a central point: at left, Jan Hus depicted as a bearded reformer in clerical dress, and at right, Martin Luther shown in a preacher's robe, both rendered in high relief in a confronted portrait composition. The surrounding field contains a continuous circular Latin legend in two registers referencing the burning of Hus in 1415 and Luther's awakening by God to restore true doctrine in 1517, commemorating the centenary of the Protestant Reformation. The design conveys a deliberate theological and historical narrative linking the two reformers across a century. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Struck exactly one century after Luther's 1517 posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, this is one of dozens of Reformationsjubiläum issues produced across Protestant German states in 1617 — a coordinated commemorative effort organized largely through Lutheran ecclesiastical networks. Magdeburg had particular reason to commemorate: the city was a Protestant stronghold and had been an early adopter of Lutheran reform, with its cathedral chapter formally embracing the new confession by the 1560s.
Three years after this coin was struck, Magdeburg would be besieged and nearly annihilated during the Thirty Years' War — the 1631 sack killing roughly 20,000 inhabitants and leaving the city a ruin for decades.