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2 Florins - Gábor Bethlen
| Issuer | Transylvania, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1628 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.92 g |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Gábor Bethlen facing right, wearing elaborately decorated plate armor with a ruff collar, the beard and facial features rendered in fine detail. The effigy is set within a beaded inner circle occupying most of the field. The surrounding legend is divided by the bust and reads GAB·D·G·SA·RO·I·ET·TRAN·PRIN, abbreviating the prince's full Latin titulature. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Bethlen's prolific gold coinage of the 1620s was directly financed by his control of the upper Hungarian mining towns — Kassa, Besztercebánya, Körmöcbánya — seized during his campaigns against the Habsburgs. The multiple-florin denominations were struck in part to pay mercenary forces and to conduct diplomacy; Bethlen was a serious player in the Thirty Years' War, having allied with the Bohemian rebels and twice driving deep into Habsburg Hungary before negotiating favorable terms at Nikolsburg in 1621.
By 1628, the year of this piece, Bethlen was negotiating his third and final anti-Habsburg coalition. He died the following year, ending Transylvania's most aggressive westward expansion under any native prince.