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 - Charles Ferdinand Vasa
| Issuer | Bishopric of Breslau (Silesia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1639 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Hammered |
| 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 | Draped bust of Charles Ferdinand Vasa, Bishop of Breslau, facing three-quarters to the right, with long flowing hair and a small goatee, wearing a clerical collar and cape. The effigy is rendered in high relief with considerable artistic detail characteristic of the Baroque period. A Latin legend encircles the bust beginning at approximately 8 o'clock, reading CAR FERD PP ET S EPS WRAT. The date 1639 appears in the lower exergue beneath the portrait. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Charles Ferdinand Vasa, younger brother of the Polish King Władysław IV, held the Bishopric of Breslau from 1625 until his death in 1655 — a tenure marked by his conspicuous reluctance to take full holy orders, which he never did. He remained a bishop-elect throughout, enjoying the revenues of the see without the ecclesiastical obligations. The 1639 date places this issue squarely in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, when Silesia was a contested theatre and the Catholic Habsburgs were reasserting control over the region's Protestant population.
The double thaler format was prestige coinage, not circulation silver.