2 Thalers - Ernest VII Ausbeute - St. Andreas

Ausbeute coinage — mining-yield pieces struck directly from ore production at a specific shaft — was among the most politically charged of all early modern coin types. This piece commemorates output from the St. Andreas mine, one of the Harz region workings that defined Hohnstein's brief economic significance before the county was absorbed into Stolberg territory. Ernest VII issued these heavy double thalers as much to assert dynastic presence over the mining revenues as to move metal through commerce. The Harz mines were bitterly contested between overlapping county jurisdictions throughout the sixteenth century.