Here is a coin I just got done photographing and I wanted to share it. I thought it had a nice look to it as well as an interesting design.
Very nice Matt. I also like the reverse best but the whole coin has a lot of appeal to me. Is this a new pickup or a coin you've had for awhile? Bruce
Very nice coin! I believe the reverse design is the historic Saxon Steed. The Saxon Steed has very old origins, possibly as far back as the 5th Century AD. Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel was one of the historic Saxon States. Here is an example of a more recent (1864) use of the motif on a 1/2 groschen coin from the Kingdom of Hannover. The central depiction of the Saxon Steed is that from the present-day coat of arms of Lower Saxony.
I found one of these, but not in as good shape as the one you have up there at a coin shop for about $15 about 5 years ago.
Side note: Neighboring Westphalia uses the very same horse. Here it is on a Westphalian notgeld coin/token - and it still appears in the CoA of the state where I live. But I don't really want to hijack the thread. Christian
Through marriages, wars and land treaty swaps, the boundry lines of all the "city-states" of Germany and Austria changed continually through the centuries (or even decades)..... that's why similar coin designs/COA's) are so frequent. The 30-Years War threw things into complete disarray and, from the start of the 17th century until Bismark "unified" Germany, borderlines were in a constant state of flux. Collecting German States coinage is an endless task ... somewhat like collecting all the Canadian Victoria Large Cent Varieties .... you can always find new, seemingly undiscovered items.
Well, it was a gradual change, I think. The Westphalian Peace sure changed the "territorial setup", but so did the Mediatization and the Vienna Congress in the early 19th century for example. A little later, Prussia annexed even more countries, such as Hannover which SM just mentioned, a trend which culminated in the Prussian-German Empire. This page shows the "various Braunschweigs" and also explains why a coin from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel would say "BR. ET LUN." (for Lüneburg) ... Christian
Many of the border/coinage changes came about through marriages ... royalty married royalty and lands changed hands because of it. Look at the current and past British Royalty ... they have more in common with Germany than the Brit Isles.
