Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Thaler - Rudolf II
| Issuer | Upper Alsace, Landgraviate of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1609-1613 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Thaler |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Armored bust of Emperor Rudolf II facing right, wearing a ruffled collar and featuring a prominent lion-head pauldron on the shoulder (reduced in size on the 1610 issue). The date appears in the field before the bust. The Latin legend is divided across the coin, reading around the portrait, with the inscription interrupted at the front of the effigy. The engraving reflects the elaborate late Renaissance imperial portraiture typical of Habsburg coinage of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Crowned complex coat of arms displaying the manifold quartered Habsburg dynastic shield with the central escutcheon of Upper Alsace. The arms are encircled by the collar and chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with a notably small pendant fleece at the base. The heraldic composition is executed in the intricate style characteristic of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century imperial Austrian coinage, with the crown surmounting the full achievement of arms. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Rudolf II's grip on the Habsburg hereditary lands was visibly loosening by 1609 — the same year his brother Matthias forced him to cede Austria, Hungary, and Moravia through the Agreement of Vienna. Upper Alsace was among the few territories where Rudolf retained nominal authority, and these thalers were struck partly to assert that presence. The wide date range and multiple Klement reference numbers reflect successive die iterations rather than continuous minting, a pattern consistent with the political turbulence of Rudolf's final years before his abdication in 1611.