This was a forum purchase from our fellow coin brother, @Randy Abercrombie ! He stated that he failed to fall in love with this big chunk of silver. I adopted it and instantly fell in love. Now, I'll be completely honest, I know very little about these types of coins. I have a few questions below that I'm hoping some seasoned veterans can chime in on. This coin has a slight concave bend to it, the wildman being the outside of the basketball. Is this because this coin was minted on a roller press? If that's the case, I'm assuming that is also the reason that the reverse details are a bit mushy, specifically at 3 to 6 o'clock? I intend on sending this piece to NGC as it will fit in my collection better as a slabbed coin. I've seen enough of these to know that a LOT of them are details graded. Do you suppose this would be a details coin or could it straight grade? Any and all comments welcome and post your Wildman coins if you have them! 1661 Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel Thaler
I did have a friend of mine that teaches German translate the legend on the obverse. It came back something like, "Consider everything with care"... Which I thought was a little rich considering you have a wildman ripping a tree out by the roots!
As you may no, I have a thing for these. It probably will not straight grade but that is kind of the norm for these. A few of my favorites: and the one my avatar came from:
That's awesome, Randy, I'm going to have to write that down somewhere so I don't forget that translation.
Nice coin. I'm sure these were roller pressed, as was the popular method at the time. Many larger coins don't have much of a bend because of their thickness, but I have minor denominations that are thin and very curved! As Chris said, they are tough on these coins in grading, but I don't think it will straight grade. The good thing is, many collectors of these don't seem to mind a details grade, especially the farther back in time you go! I've yet to obtain a thaler sized version, but I hope to soon! My Wildman coins: Brunswick-Luneberg-Calenberg-Hannover Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (over date 8/7) Hohnstein, 12 Kreuzer
Very nice pieces, Joshua! I really like the overdate coin. I'll be pleased with my thaler whether it comes back straight graded or details.
My LCS called on Tuesday to tell me the Wildman was back from NGC. It sounded like he was starting to call out the results so I interrupted, “No, no, no, don’t say it!! I want it to be a surprise, like opening up a vaulbox purchase.” I had to leave work at lunchtime on Wednesday for an appointment and then work from the home office in the afternoon so I swung past the shop on my way home. I sit down at the counter and Todd comes over with his hands cupped over the slab. He slowly lifts his hand off the slab to reveal ……….. I am absolutely tickled pink that it came back this way. With the info on the slab I did more research and found that this particular Wildman is referred to as the “houseboy” Taler because the Wildman appears to be dusting his forest with a broom. As stated previously, it wouldn’t have mattered if he did come back details, I love the coin either way. This just turned out to be a huge bonus and I can still say that I don’t have a details coin anywhere in my collection.
