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2 Thalers - Peter Ernest I, Bruno II, Gebhard VIII and John George IV
| Issuer | Mansfeld-Friedeburg, County of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1597-1598 |
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| Currency | Thaler (1531-1626) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Saint George mounted on a horse prancing to the right, depicted in full armor with lance in hand, slaying a dragon writhing beneath the horse's hooves. The composition is rendered in a bold, late Renaissance style characteristic of late 16th-century German coinage. The encircling Latin legend, which continues the titulature of the issuing counts, commences with a small imperial orb serving as a punctuation device at the beginning of the inscription. |
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| Mintage | 1597 - - 1598 - - |
| Additional information |
Mansfeld was one of the most copper- and silver-rich counties in the Holy Roman Empire, and by the 1590s it was also one of the most financially ruined. Decades of joint inheritance among competing lines of the Schiefer family had fragmented the county into overlapping sub-jurisdictions, each with nominal coinage rights. This piece names all four reigning counts of the Friedeburg line simultaneously — not as ceremony, but as legal necessity, since any coin issued without all co-rulers' authority was challengeable under imperial law.
The Friedeburg branch was bankrupt within a generation. Mansfeld's mining output had peaked; the debts had not.