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!
10 Ducats - Charles Adam
| Issuer | Mansfeld-Bornstedt, County of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1657 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Round |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | CAROLVS ADAMVS COMES I MANSFEL HP K 16 57 |
| Reverse description | Armored equestrian figure of Saint George, mounted on a caparisoned horse rearing to the right, thrusting a lance downward to slay a dragon prostrate beneath the horse's hooves. The saint wears full armor and a plumed helmet, rendered in dynamic relief. The scene fills the inner field, enclosed by a beaded border, with the Latin legend continuing around the full circumference of the coin. |
| 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 |
Charles Adam of Mansfeld-Bornstedt ruled one of the smallest and most financially precarious subdivisions of the already-fragmented Mansfeld comital territories, a dynasty that had spent most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries parceling itself into ever-diminishing inheritance shares. By 1657 the county was deep in debt, its silver mines — once among the most productive in the Holy Roman Empire — largely exhausted. A 10-ducat presentation piece in this context is not routine coinage but almost certainly a diplomatic or ceremonial strike, the kind of object a minor count produced to assert relevance he could barely afford.
The Mansfeld mines had supplied bullion to the Reformation-era economy and employed Thomas Müntzer before his role in the 1525 peasant revolt.