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Groschen
| Issuer | Free imperial City of Colmar (French States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1499 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.7 g |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold plain cross with slightly flared terminals extends to the beaded inner circle, dividing the field into four quarters. The circular legend, invoking Saint Martin as bishop and patron of Colmar, runs between the inner and outer beaded borders with the date 1499 incorporated into the inscription. The lettering is rendered in late medieval uncial characters, and small decorative stops punctuate the legend. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Colmar gained imperial free city status in 1226 and spent the following centuries navigating the competing pressures of the Habsburgs and the Decapole — the league of ten Alsatian cities formed in 1354 under imperial protection. This groschen dates to a moment when that autonomy was increasingly nominal; Maximilian I had been consolidating control over Alsace throughout the 1490s, and Colmar's independent coinage rights were effectively a formality within a generation of this strike.
The MB#18 / E&L#4 reference places this among the better-documented late municipal issues from the city before French annexation in 1673 ended any pretense of local monetary independence.