1/3 Thaler
County of Mansfeld - Eisleben
1669
Composition: Silver
Weight: 9.64g
Diameter: 31.7mm
Thickness: 1.5mm
John George III, Elector of Saxony
House: Wettin
Born 1647 - Died 1691
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1/3 Thaler County of Mansfeld - Eisleben 1669 Composition: Silver Weight: 9.64g Diameter: 31.7mm Thickness: 1.5mm John George III, Elector of Saxony House: Wettin Born 1647 - Died 1691 |
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This coin features Saint George slaying a dragon. Saint George was an early Christian martyr. He was an imperial guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, and was sentenced to death for his Christian faith. The Diocletianic Persecution was the last persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. In 303, Roman Emperors issued edicts demanding Christians comply with traditional religious practices. George was executed in 303. A popular legend from the 1260s by Jacobus de Voragine, titled "The Golden Legend" describes a city plagued by a dragon that was poisoning the countryside. To prevent the dragon from afflicting the city, the people offered animals as sacrifice. Eventually this progressed to men, and then children chosen by lottery. One day the King's daughter was chosen for sacrifice, and was sent to be fed to the dragon. Saint George arrived on horseback, and wounded the dragon with his lance. Saint George and the princess led the dragon back to the city, where George offered to slay the dragon if the people agreed to be baptised and convert to Christianity. The King and fifteen thousand men converted, and a church was built where George beheaded the dragon. |
The letters ABK on the reverse of the coin, below the date, are the initials of mint master Anton Bernhard Koburger. In 1663 he was appointed mint master at the Halle mint in Magdeburg by Duke August. The Halle mint was not sanctioned by the Empire, and mint operations were not legal. In 1667, Koburger accepted an additional post of mint master for the Counts of Mansfeld at the Eisleben mint. A year later the Halle mint was closed by the Empire, and Koburger was briefly jailed. He was permitted to move to Eisleben to continue as mint master for Mansfeld, where this coin was minted in 1669. In 1674, the mint warden of the Upper Saxon Circle accused Koburger of striking underweight coins, and striking coins at the Eisleben mint with metal not produced in Mansfeld mines. Koburger was dismissed from the mint in 1675 and became an overseer of a copper mine, he died in 1680. Source: The Numismatist, August 1951 issue. |