1 Thaler Siege coinage

Reverse

Script: Latin

Lettering:
MONETA NOVA CIVITATIS GEDANENSIS
15 77

Comment

Note: The biggest denomination of siege coins struck in silver. It wasn't of good quality, as about 540kg of it came from decorations in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Gdańsk. This gave the city enough silver to mint 20768 Talers. 

At the time these coins were minted, there were two mint masters. First Caspar Goebel and Talleman. The first master was fired because it was said that he took atleast 4000 Talers for himself, while they were supposed to be used in circulation.

The types minted by Talleman are of worse quality, because

A) they were minted later during the siege, when the city was running out of precious metals,

B) the dies made by Talleman were of worse quality than the ones used before,

C) Talleman had less experience than the previous mint masters, which is why the drawing on the coin was also worse.

Coins minted by Talleman are also a bit rarer, with an estimated modern population of 25-120. This is way less than the population of coins made by Goebel, as about 601-3000 of these survived. 

While a lot of them could've been minted, the destruction of these coins was ordered shortly after the siege ended (in favour of Polish forces). Foreign powers viewed these coins as counterfeit and prohibited their use, despite other coins from the city being commonly used in other hanseatic cities.

© Images courtesy of Antykwariat Numizmatyczny - Michał Niemczyk

Kopicki 7397 / 7399


Punch 1: 



Punch 2:
a


b



Punch 3:



Differences:

Punch 1:


Punch 2:


a / b


Punch 3:





Punch 1 price: 40 000 PLN

Punch 2 a price: 23 000 PLN

Punch 2 b price: 30 000 PLN

Punch 3 price: 23 000 PLN

Interesting fact