WEISSGROSCHEN: COIN OF BOHEMIA
Weissgroschen, 1592: Kingdom of Bohemia
Ruler: Rudolf II — Holy Roman Emperor from House of Habsburg (1576-1612); King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I) and Archduke of Austria.
ARCHID AVST DVX BVR MAR M 1592 (159Z): Archidux Austriae Dux Burgundiae Marchio Moraviae (Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Marquis of Moravia).
Crowned double-headed imperial eagle (Holy Roman Empire) displayed with arms of Austria and Burgundy on breast.
RVDOL II D G RO IM S A G H B R: Rudolphus II Dei Gratia Romanorum Imperator Semper Augustus Germaniae Hungariae Bohemiae Rex (Rudolph II, by the grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, Forever Augustus, King of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia).
A striding crowned white lion with a forked tail (the Czech lion is an element of the modern coat of arms of the Czech Republic).
Bird's wing as mark of mintmaster G. Satny von Olivet below (Mint of Kuttenberg; modern-day Kutná Hora, Czech Republic).
Despite the coin's name, which indicates the white color of pure silver, my specimen doesn't look quite silver — it has an almost golden patina.
- Silver: 22 mm - 1.78 g
- Reference price: 53$
COIN WEISSGROSCHEN — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- KINGDOM OF BOHEMIA (1573-1619): weissgroschen = 1/20 thaler
WEISSGROSCHEN as coin name.
Weissgroschen — high-quality European silver coin of the 16th-17th centuries. The most famous are the Kingdom of Bohemia types (although personally, unlike other sources, I believe that it is fair to call only the above-mentioned Bohemian coins as weissgroschen; analogues of other issuers have similar, but still different names).
The weissgroschen of Bohemia was 1/20 thaler or 3 kreuzer.
On the web there are several very similar types of Bohemian weissgroschen from the period from 1573 to 1619. In addition, a unique weissgroschen of 1604 in the klippe (square coin) format is separately available.
It is worth mentioning that from approximately 1300 to 1547, Bohemia massively minted the famous Prague groschen. The quality of silver in this coin has significantly decreased over the years (from 900th fineness to about 500th). For some time after that, coins of this type were issued with a denomination that is now indicated in catalogs in the format simply Groschen. But in the 1570s, the emission of higher-quality silver coins (made of pure, white, silver) begins, which were called Weissgroschen.
The new coin was minted in parallel at several mints in the territory of modern Czech Republic: Jáchymov (better known in numismatics as Joachimsthal — from here, by the way, the glorious history of the thaler coin began), Kutná Hora, Budějovice, Prague.
The name weissgroschen (weißgroschen) literally means "white groschen" in German. This is probably an indication of the high quality of the silver in the coin (light or white metal), as was the case with other coins with a similar etymology — weisspfennig, blan-gros, blanc, blanca, albus...
