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1 Thaler - Matthias II Three emperors
| Issuer | Holy Roman Empire (Bohemia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1612-1619 |
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| Value | 1 Thaler |
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| Obverse description | Three conjoined laureate and crowned busts facing left in high relief, depicting Holy Roman Emperors Maximilian I, Charles V, and Ferdinand I in overlapping profile, each wearing an imperial crown and draped in elaborate armour. The busts occupy the full central field, rendered in fine hammered detail with individualized facial features and regalia. A beaded inner border separates the effigies from the surrounding circumferential Latin legend. The legend reads: MAXI I CARO V ET FERD D G ROM CÆS REG HISP, identifying the three emperors by abbreviated name and their titles as Roman Caesars and Kings of Spain. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | MAXI I CARO V ET FERD D G ROM CÆS REG HISP |
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| Additional information |
Matthias II became Holy Roman Emperor in 1612 under deeply contested circumstances, having already forced his brother Rudolf II to cede the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns through the Brothers' Quarrel — a dynastic confrontation that exposed the Habsburg succession as anything but stable. The "Three Emperors" designation on this issue acknowledges the extraordinary overlap of Rudolf II, Matthias, and the looming succession crisis that would eventually seat Ferdinand II, collapsing an already fractured imperial structure into the opening catastrophe of the Thirty Years' War.
Bohemia was among the most productive silver-striking territories in the Empire, with the Joachimsthal and Kuttenberg mints drawing on deep Erzgebirge deposits. Matthias's Bohemian thalers from this window are struck on broad, well-prepared flans — a consistency that deteriorated sharply after 1618.