1626 Thaler

This thaler was struck in 1626 in the small County of Stolberg in the Harz Mountains, in the middle of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The Counts of Stolberg were Lutheran imperial counts whose territory sat directly on the front lines as Catholic and Protestant armies marched back and forth across central Germany. Striking a full thaler at all in this period was an act of asserting sovereign rights at a time when many small German territories were being overrun.

The obverse shows the Stolberg stag, the heraldic emblem of the house, walking left over a grassy field, surrounded by the abbreviated titles of the count's many small territories: Wernigerode, Honstein, Eppstein, Mansfeld, Lora, and Klettenberg.

The reverse displays the elaborate quartered family arms surmounted by three crested helms, with the date 1626 split across the top and the legend identifying WOLF[gang] GEORG GR[af] [zu] STOLB[erg] R[omani] I[mperii] - Wolfgang Georg, Count of Stolberg of the Holy Roman Empire.

NGC MS-62 is a remarkable state of preservation for any small-state German thaler of the Thirty Years' War period, when most surviving examples are heavily circulated, holed, or mounted. Choice Mint State examples of Stolberg thalers are exactly the kind of small-state German silver that anchor a serious thaler collection.