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Thaler Double-headed eagle
| Issuer | City of Lucerne |
|---|---|
| Year | 1622 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Thaler (1550-1656) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, a crowned imperial double-headed eagle displayed, its wings spread, with the Lucerne city arms — a shield divided per pale — superimposed on the eagle's breast. The date 1622 appears divided across the lower field, flanking the eagle's talons. A circular Latin legend runs along the periphery, separated from the inner circle by a plain border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Lucerne struck thalers under the authority granted by the Holy Roman Empire to Swiss cantons and cities, but 1622 places this piece squarely within the Kipper und Wipper crisis — one of the worst currency debasements in early modern European history. Neighboring states were flooding circulation with underweight, debased coinage to extract silver profit, and the pressure on honest issuers like Lucerne was considerable. A full-weight thaler from this moment is not an unremarkable survival.
Wielandt's attribution as L#84 and KM#24 confirms this as a recognized type rather than an off-metal or trial piece. The Haas reference adds a third concordance, suggesting enough surviving examples exist for cross-catalog study.