1616 2 Thaler

The Harz mountains supplied the silver that made the German thaler possible, and the mints working that ore had a habit of turning their finest metal into sermons. This 1616 double thaler is one of the best examples of the genre: a full-relief religious tableau on one face and, on the other, a page of text.

The obverse renders the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. Jesus stands in the water at center; John the Baptist kneels at right in his camel-hair robe, pouring from a shell; an angel kneels at left holding the Saviour's garment; and above them the Holy Spirit descends as a dove out of a radiant cloud, with the Hebrew Tetragrammaton blazing at the top of the field. The legend around the rim, in German Fraktur, cites Matthew 28:19 - the command to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The reverse abandons imagery altogether for eight lines of German verse on baptism and salvation, framed by scrolled ornament and closed with chapter-and-verse citations - Galatians 3:26-27, Titus 3:5-7, 1 Peter 3:21 - with the mark of value, 2, punched at the base. It is a coin meant to be read aloud rather than counted.

Uncirculated survivors of these heavy devotional multiples are uncommon; most were worn as talismans or mounted, and the high points of the baptism scene are usually the first thing lost. This one retains the full sculptural relief and the cabinet toning that lets the tableau read clearly.