As I work to learn about my ancestors, I Order records, read stories, family members send me information and websites to read about the past. In one of my websites I found this page is on money in the year: April 1636 to April 1665 So I had to look this up, This is what I found 1591 Davenport 9806 Imperial Rix Dollar Christian I of Saxony - 1 Thaler Obverse: CHRISTIAN · D : G · DVX · SAXO · SA · ROMA · IMP · [orb] · / 15 91 Reverse: · ARCHIMARS CHAL · ET · ELEC Weight: 444.3 g (28.79 grams) Diameter: 40.6 mm Comments: This is a silver thaler of Saxony. The obverse legend may be translated as: "Christian by the grace of God Duke of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire." This is Christian I (1586-1591) of the Albertine line. The reverse legend translates as: "Archmarshal and elector" that is, one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Albertine line was founded by Albrecht the Courageous, who was a grandson of Friedrick, margrave of Meissen and Thuringia. Friedrick's gransdons Ernst and Albrecht divided the family property in 1495 ( into the Ernestine and Albertine lines) with Albert obtaining Meissn and Osterland, in what later became the kingdom of Saxony. The mintmaster's initials HB appear on the reverse of this coin at the upper right near the rim. Davenport does not mention the location of the mint, which was probably Leipzig. On this coin see: John S. Davenport, German Thalers 1500-1600, Frankfurt am Main: Numismatischer Verlag P.N. Schulten, 1979, p. 323. In England and America coins of this type were called imperial rix dollars and came in many different iconographic styles. This particular example is very similar to the Dutch rix dollar as depicted in Mossman on page 66, figure 11 b. http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinText/Rix-Dollar.1.html Pieces of Eight By far, the coinage most often encountered in daily use was Spanish. The coins came to the country via trade with the West Indies. By all accounts, the single most predominant coin was the Spanish Dollar, known also as the Spanish Piece-of-Eight, the eight-real piece, or peso (Figure 2). The Spanish dollar was divided into eight rials or reals, usually written as "rialls" or "ryalls" in colonial records. The fractional coins were the four-real piece, the double real, the real, the half-real, and the quarter-real. ([Carothers 30], p25) http://www.coinlibrary.com/wpns/club_wpns_pr_odd_denominations.htm QUESTION, Are the coins rare and hard to find? Cheryl
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. :thumb: This is a really attractive coin. I like the happy face on the obverse!
