Stefan Batory's double talar of 1580 from Olkusz was struck at a moment when the mint there was operating under considerable pressure — the king had dramatically reorganized royal minting operations in the late 1570s to fund his Livonian campaigns against Ivan the Terrible, and Olkusz, sitting atop the richest silver-bearing lead ore deposits in the Commonwealth, was a primary engine of that war financing. The campaigns succeeded; Pskov and Polotsk were taken.
Kop. 545 is among the rarer Olkusz double talar varieties of this reign. At 57 grams, these were never pocket change — they functioned as diplomatic and mercantile instruments, and survivors in honest circulated condition are considerably more typical than cabinet pieces.
Stefan Batory's double talar of 1580 from Olkusz was struck at a moment when the mint there was operating under considerable pressure — the king had dramatically reorganized royal minting operations in the late 1570s to fund his Livonian campaigns against Ivan the Terrible, and Olkusz, sitting atop the richest silver-bearing lead ore deposits in the Commonwealth, was a primary engine of that war financing. The campaigns succeeded; Pskov and Polotsk were taken.
Kop. 545 is among the rarer Olkusz double talar varieties of this reign. At 57 grams, these were never pocket change — they functioned as diplomatic and mercantile instruments, and survivors in honest circulated condition are considerably more typical than cabinet pieces.