I picked this up this weekend at the coin store and want some more information on it. I think the coin looks cool.
This was after napoleon turned the 237 state holy roman empire into 35 states right? great piece of german history if it is real
ok I'm not as good at History as I thought I was. Been 2 years since I studied the German States. So this coin was from the Holy Roman Empire. That was neither Holy nor Roman and hardly and empire.
I hope it's real are there many fakes in this series. I thought it was a good pick up for 15 bucks. So did all 35 states have their own coins.
Everything about it looks perfectly genuine. Also, this is the better "with mintmark" variety. The price you paid is fair for the cheaper "without mintmark" variety, so you did quite well.
Hmm, the coin is from 1769. The Holy Roman Empire ended, primarily due to Napoleon's influence, in 1806. And the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) founded at the Vienna Congress nine years later, certainly not by Napoleon , had 38 members (35 at its end). Yes, considerably fewer than, for example the 300 or so at the end of the Thirty Years War. As for the name "Holy Roman Empire (of German Nation)", of course it was somewhat pompous. Lots of political titles are, even today. But the idea of continuing the ancient Roman Empire, being its heir so to say, had been around for a long time - at least since Charlemagne had been crowned "Emperor of the Romans" ... Christian
