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!
8 Albus
| Issuer | Cologne, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1636 |
| 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 | 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) | Noss Co IV#376-380, KM#342 |
| Obverse description | Central shield bearing the arms of Cologne: the upper half divided into three compartments displaying the Three Crowns of Cologne (the emblems of the Three Magi), and the lower half charged with eleven ermine drops. The date 1636 appears prominently above the shield. Flanking the shield at upper left is a small escutcheon with a crescent and star, and at upper right a small escutcheon with mullets. At the base, a small cartouche displays the Cologne civic arms (the standing lion). The surrounding legend, reading clockwise, names the Three Magi: BALTHAS · CASPAR · MELCHI, the patron saints of Cologne, separated by the flanking escutcheons. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Cologne struck this issue during the Thirty Years' War, when the city's status as a Free Imperial City made it a rare island of relative stability amid the destruction consuming the Rhineland. Municipal coinages proliferated in this period as imperial monetary authority fragmented and regional mints scrambled to meet local demand with their own silver.
The albus — a low-denomination silver coin deeply rooted in Rhenish monetary tradition since the 14th century — remained the practical currency of everyday commerce in the region long after larger imperial denominations dominated official accounting.