Hi! Completely new to this forum so if I'm making any mistakes, please don't yell at me;-) A friend at work found this on his property in Sweden a few years back. If I'm not mistaken, it has something to do with this guy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias,_Holy_Roman_Emperor It's seems to be from Lübeck but my opinon is that the coat of arms don't match the ones I've seen, it also says "IMP" which I guess is a latin shortening for Emperor. If some one knows more about this coin, please tell me, and if it's worth anything, I'd be glad to know. I'm not much of a coin collector myself but f you have any questions I'll try to answer. Pictures: http://web.telia.com/~u68003163/ Best Regars /G
Howdy gaspode - Welcome to the Forum !! You pretty much figured it out - it's a thaler of 32 schilling with the titles of Mathias. According to Krause, in that condition it's worth about $125.
What is interesting is that it might be a double strike but what is tempting me, is to ask if it is an overstruck coin and what the underlying image could be.
to CoinTalk gaspode. I think you'll find this to be a very friendly place, where we don't yell at anybody. Since it was both a Bishopric and a Free City at various times, and at least some of the Bishops were concurrently Dukes of multiple German States, there are several coats of arms that can be identified with Lubeck. Your friend's coin is a silver Thaler of 32 Schilling, and probably one of the varieties of the one identified as KM#38 or Davenport #5447 in the 17th Century Standard Catalog of World Coins. The reverse matches exactly, but St. John's robes on the obverse are more like those on KM#36/Dav.#5446. Both were struck under Mintmaster Statius Weissel, who probably still had his dies from the earlier 1610-1612 design when he struck the later design from 1612-1616. (Another mintmaster continued that issue until 1619.) The values given in my 1999 2d Ed. are basically the same for both issues, although to a specialist in early German State coinage the mixed-die variety might be considered more valuable. I don't collect anything from that period, so I have no idea where prices have gone since 1999, but as listed then the coin was valued at $65 VG, $125 F, $225 VF, and $375 XF. My non-expert opinion of your friend's piece is in the Fine to Very Fine range. Finding an early 17th Century German State coin in Sweden is certainly consistent with the history of those times. A nice find, indeed.
