Thaler - Anthony

Anthony of Lorraine — Duke from 1508 until his death in 1544 — was one of the more consequential rulers the duchy produced, most notably for his brutal suppression of the German Peasants' War at the Battle of Saverne in 1525, where Alsatian peasant forces were massacred in their thousands. His thalers were struck against the backdrop of the duchy's careful navigation between Habsburg pressure and French ambition, a position that demanded the visible weight of large silver coinage to project ducal authority. The Flon and Saulcy references both draw on a relatively thin documentary record for this issue, and precise die chronology within the reign remains unresolved.