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!
2 Thalers
| Issuer | Magdeburg, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1618 |
| 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 | 58.21 g |
| 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 | Equestrian figure of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor and founder of Magdeburg, depicted in full armour and imperial regalia, riding a prancing horse to the right while holding a sceptre aloft in his right hand. The horse is rendered in high relief with fine detailing on the mane and trappings. The date 1618 appears in the exergue below the horse. A continuous Latin legend encircles the design, reading OTTO I IM AV MAGD CIVIT FVNDAT, identifying Otto I as the august founder of the City of Magdeburg. The overall composition reflects the bold, late-Renaissance hammered style characteristic of early seventeenth-century German civic coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| 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 |
Magdeburg's 2 Thaler of 1618 was struck at the precise moment the Thirty Years' War ignited — the Defenestration of Prague occurred that same year. The city would pay catastrophically for its Protestant allegiance. In May 1631, imperial and Liga forces under Tilly sacked Magdeburg in one of the war's most devastating atrocities, killing some 20,000 civilians and burning the city almost entirely to the ground. Municipal coinage effectively ceased.
Pieces from 1618 are consequently among the last issued under normal civic authority before decades of destruction and occupation disrupted the mint entirely.