Commemorating the End of the Thirty Years’ War

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 1001. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMANY, Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Friedrich. Duke, 1636-1648. AR 3 Taler (85.61 g, 11h). Clausthal mint; Lippold Wefer, mintmaster. Dated 1647. V • G • G • FRIDERICH HERTZOG ZU BRAUNSUEIG UND LUNEBURG : •, draped bust right within laurel wreath surrounded by 14 crowned coats of arms / UNFRIED VERZEHRT • ANNO 1647 • FRIEDE ERNEHRT •, mountain mining scene: two miners in foreground, trees and stumps on hill; farmer tending field and shepherd tending flock beside farmhouse to left; below, value 3 stamped, L W (mintmaster’s initials) flanking. Welter 1399; Fiala -; Knyphausen 8431; Müseler 10.4.1/37; Davenport 135; KM 177. EF, toned. Rare.

This beautiful multiple taler was minted by Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, to commemorate the end of the Thirty Years’ War. On the obverse, around the portrait of the duke, are the coats of arms of towns in his lands: Brunswick, Eberstein, Oberdiepholz, Lohra, Unterdiepholz, Lutterberg, Blankenburg, Klettenberg, Regenstein, Hohnstein, Bruchhausen, Hoya, Homburg and Lüneburg. The reverse depicts the mountain valley of Clausthal, a mining town in the Harz Mountains. The scene shows a farmer working his land, a shepherd tending his flock, and a pair of miners working below ground. To the people of the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, this peaceful landscape scene must have appeared idyllic when compared to the episodes of conquest and pillage that were so common during the Thirty Years’ War.