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11/2 Schilling - Gustav II Adolf
| Issuer | Riga, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1623 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Two crossed keys, the arms of the city of Riga, occupy the central field within a beaded inner circle, dividing the date 16-23 into the upper and lower quarters. The keys are depicted with ornate bows and cross-shaped bits. A circular Latin legend surrounds the inner circle, identifying this as a new coin of the city of Riga. |
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| Additional information |
Riga's municipal coinage occupied a complicated legal space in 1623 — the city had passed to Swedish control in 1621 following Gustav II Adolf's siege, but retained its longstanding right to strike its own civic issues, a privilege jealously guarded since the medieval period. This schilling is a product of that uneasy accommodation between a conquering crown and a mercantile city that knew its own financial interests.
The 1½ schilling denomination itself was a pragmatic response to chronic small-change shortages in the Baltic trade economy. Billon of this fineness wore badly in circulation, and survivors with readable surfaces are harder to find than the reference numbers might suggest.