Folding cap thaler
Klappmützentaler is the popular name for Saxon guilder groschen , which were minted in Saxony since the end of the 15th century . The fold-up hats got their name from the headgear of the two dukes depicted on the reverse. The Klappmützentaler are among the first coins in Germany that were significantly involved in the circulation of money. As a model for the Bohemian Joachimstaler , the Klappmützentaler is the direct ancestor of many European and American silver coins.
layout
The die-cutter of the first hinged cap crowns oriented to the front of the 1492 to 1493 mints Zwickau and Snow Mountain embossed Bartgroschens , the first Saxon coin with the image of the ruler. This can also be seen in the distribution of the four coats of arms in the romanization (Kur, Sachsen, Thuringia and Meißen), which was later changed. The model for the first die cut (1500) was probably a bust of Frederick the Wise, made by the Italian artist Adriano Fiorentino (1498).
The fold-up hats got their name from the headgear of the two dukes depicted on the reverse. The legend of the thaler shown here (there are a number of variants) reads: MONE (ta) ARGE (ntea) DVCVM SAXO (niae), i.e. about silver money from the Duchy of Saxony .
Embossing
Klappmützentaler were first minted during the period from 1500 to 1525 under Elector Friedrich the Wise and the dukes Johann and Albrecht . After Albrecht's death (September 12, 1500), the coinage was continued with the bust portraits of the dukes Johann and Georg .
Fold-up hats do not have the year. However, based on the transcriptions, the date of minting can be inferred:
- FRIDERICVS - ALBERTVS - IOHANNES (only in 1500, May to September)
- FRIDERICVS - GEORGIVS - IOHANNES (from 1500 to 1507)
- FRIDERICVS - IOHANNES - GEORGIVS (from 1507 to 1525)
Fold-up hats with a cross, the mint master's mark of Albrecht von Schreibersdorf, were minted in Annaberg from 1512.
Due to the long minting time and the use of approx. 280 stamps, it is assumed that a seven-digit number of folding cap thalers was minted. In 2010, Tristan Weber's study of Saxon coinage between 1500 and 1525 came up with minting numbers between 0.53 and 2.3 million pieces.
Double and triple guilder groschen, which are very rare today, were also minted from the folding cap thalers. A triple guldengroschen was auctioned for 92,500 euros ( hammer price ) around the end of April 2011 (Vogel collection no. 5887).
Silver content and origin
Klappmützentaler have a rough weight of about 29.2 g (8 pieces from the rough Cologne mark of about 233.86 g). As the embossing was made of 15-solder silver (937.5 / 1000 fineness), its fine weight is 27.40 g.
The silver for the minting of the folding hats came from mines in the Ore Mountains. In particular, much more silver was mined in Annaberg in the first quarter of the 16th century than in other Saxon mining areas. In 1500, 25,000 weight marks of silver (approx. 5.8 t) came from Annaberg compared to 2,000 weight marks from Freiberg or 9,000 marks from Schneeberg . Even in 1525 there was still more silver from Annaberg than from Freiberg and Schneeberg combined, despite the production being halved.
Klappmützentaler were minted in Annaberg , Buchholz and for a short time (May 1518 / July 1519) also in the Leipzig mint . The minting place of the first Klappmützentaler (1500) is Frohnau (today part of Annaberg-Buchholz). However, it cannot be ruled out that the first silver guilders might also have been minted in the Wittenberg mint .
According to Weber, the Klappmützentaler or the guilder groschen were intended to displace the gold guilder in Saxony. However, the Klappmützentaler had a slightly higher silver content than seven Schreckenberger silver groschen, which were also minted in Saxony, with the same nominal value . The guldengroschen were probably bought up by other minters because of their high silver content and used to mint lower-value coins, but unlike Schreckenberger they were almost never hoarded (therefore very rare today).
Individual evidence
- ^ Tristan Weber: The Saxon coinage from 1500 to 1571: A quantitative study , Gietl Verlag 2010, p. 9.