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1 Thaler - Henry Julius
| Issuer | Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1589-1590 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Heinrich Julius facing left, wearing elaborately articulated plate armor with a ruffled lace collar, the effigy dividing the date (15-89) in the field. The portrait is rendered in high relief with fine detail on the pauldrons and gorget. A continuous Latin legend runs along the inner edge of the beaded border, citing the ruler's full titles as administrator of the Bishopric of Halberstadt and Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Henry Julius became administrator of the Halberstadt bishopric in 1566 and succeeded his father Julius as Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1589 — the year this thaler's issue begins. He was also a playwright of some note, one of the earliest German dramatists to write in a recognizably modern secular idiom, which sits oddly against the austere monetary output of his early reign.
The Welter 634 attribution places this among the thalers struck at the Andreasberg or Zellerfeld facilities, both operating from the rich silver veins of the Harz mining district that had funded Brunswick coinage since his father Julius opened new shafts in the 1550s. Julius's mining reforms essentially bankrolled the entire dynasty's output for decades.