1641 (over 1639) Reichsthaler

Augsburg was one of the great Free Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire - a banking and silver-trading capital that produced some of the most artistically ambitious thalers of the 17th century. Struck in 1641 over an earlier 1639 die (the overdate is visible in the date), this Reichsthaler bears the laureate, armored bust of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III on the obverse with the legend IMP·CAES·FERD·III·P·F·GER·HVN·BOH·REX ("Emperor Caesar Ferdinand III, Pious and Fortunate, King of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia").

The reverse is the masterpiece: a bird's-eye view of the city of Augsburg with its towers, gates, churches, and walls rendered in fine detail, with the city's heraldic emblem - the imperial Pyr (a stylized pinecone on a column, taken from the Roman past of the city) - rising at the centre. The legend reads AVGVSTA · VINDELICORVM ("Augsburg of the Vindelici," its Roman name) with the date 1641 split at the foot of the column.

The coin was struck in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, only six years before the Peace of Westphalia would end it. Augsburg, despite its imperial loyalty (its mintmasters dutifully named Ferdinand III on the obverse), had been heavily damaged in the war, occupied at various times by both sides, and was struggling economically. That a coin of this artistic ambition could still be struck in such conditions is itself remarkable.

Davenport-5039 is the recognized reference for the type. PCGS MS-65 is the finest example certified - rich circulation-cabinet toning over fully struck devices, the city panorama crisp down to the individual spires.