How Far Back Can We Go? Sixth Edition! Ended At 1380 Waiting On 1379

1806 -- United States, 25 cents:

1806 British farthing:

Halfpenny with reverse die crack linking the trident to the rim:

Penny:


Around 20 years ago I was working on my own in a large Georgian house. One afternoon I got bored and I went crawling on the floor poking under the skirting-board with a length of bent wire, and the above 1806 halfpenny popped out!

Less than two weeks before we will be largely switching away from US coinage. Until then, here is another Large Cent:

Can't wait. You can school me. I am starting to like the Polish coins

@tdziemia Thank you!
It is a fascinating coin with an unusual motif.

The City Arms obverse is shared with another 1806 Kreuzer (cf. KM410) but the rosebush reverse is unique to the issue.

1806 was a pretty rough year for Nuremberg By that time a more or less bankrupt city-state following the breakup of the HRE, Nuremberg was "saved" by Bavaria who acquired the lands and holdings in exchange for making good on the city's debts and defaults.

"Wandle auf Rosen" is on one level a reference to an anonymous Romantic German poem of the era:

Wandle auf Rosen lange Zeit /
bis an das Ufer der Herrlichkeit

Dort stehen Engel mit Sternenkronen /
die werden dir Liebe und Treue belohnen.

The reference is to Psalm 8:6

..."mit Herrlichkeit und Ehre gekrönt"

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Roses were a popular subject for many Romantic German and Austrian poets, authors and song-writers, then and after: Heine, von Schiller, Goethe, and many other famous folks all wrote in praise of the virtue of roses and rosebushes.

Nuremberg in particular (along with Bamberg) has a strong association with the Renaissance Romanticism/Mysticism of the Rose Cross (Rosicrucianism), itself descended from and intertwined with other mystic traditions such as John Dee's divine alchemy and even the Freemasons. (Google "Christian Rosenkreuz.") Therefore, a Kreuzer with a rosebush is perhaps also symbolic of that aspect as well.

As a result, the simple invocation to "Walk on roses" can be interpreted in many ways: as a Biblical reference, as a reference to Rosicrucian mysticism, as a reference to Nuremberg's arms (crowned with a rose), or as a lament to the loss of the HRE / the loss of the City's independence as a Free State.

@parlyse, I had no clue that my comment would lead to such history. Loving it!




@princetane, After the 5th edition I made the same promise to myself. I am now a few years older, my collection is certainly better, and though I have spent a bundle on coins since then, my balance sheet has mysteriously not suffered much ... and of course I am a more learned collector as a result.