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1 Thaler - John 'Siegesthaler'
| Issuer | Kingdom of Saxony |
|---|---|
| Year | 1871 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 18.5 g |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A winged Victory figure, armored and wearing a laurel crown, rides a prancing horse to the left across a field of fallen weapons — spears, swords, and cannons — symbolizing triumph in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Victory holds in her right hand a laurel branch and in her left a staff surmounted by a Prussian eagle standard. The denomination EIN THALER appears vertically along the left field, and XXX EIN PF. along the right. The date 1871 is inscribed in the lower exergue within a wreath of laurel branches. The entire design is enclosed by a beaded border and executed in the historicist style characteristic of mid-19th-century German coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Issued to commemorate Prussia's decisive victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War, this Saxon victory thaler — the name "Siegesthaler" means simply victory thaler — was struck at a moment of acute political tension for the Kingdom of Saxony. Saxony had fought on Prussia's side, but not willingly; the memory of 1866, when Prussian forces occupied Dresden after Sadowa, was barely five years old. The new German Empire proclaimed at Versailles in January 1871 absorbed Saxony into a structure it had little say in shaping.
King Johann, then 71 and in the final years of his reign, was a noted Dante scholar — his Italian translation published under a pseudonym remains respected. The commemorative issue bearing his name was one of the last major Saxon thalers struck before the imperial mark system eliminated state coinage entirely in 1873.