"R" stamped onto a coin often means it's a "Replica". I don't think that's what this "R" means, since nobody to my knowledge makes replicas of German notgeld coins. But it's an unfortunate coincidence.
And in case anyone is wondering: the coin is a notgeld coin from the city of Aachen, Germany, and depicts the famous "wolf statue" in the city's cathedral. The legend of this statue is that back in mediaeval times, the city elders made a pact with the Devil: the Devil would complete the construction of their cathedral for them (the construction of which had suffered from delays and cost blowouts), but he would claim the soul of the first mortal being to enter the completed building. With the Emperor Charlemagne due to arrive in town the next day for his coronation ceremony in the cathedral, they had a quandary: how to keep their cathedral, but stop the Devil from claiming a soul (especially the emperor's)? One canny monk found the loophole in the Devils' contract, and had the solution to their problem: send in a humanoid animal. So they captured a large wolf and sent it into the cathedral. In the dim light, the Devil didn't realise he had been tricked until it was too late, and so the cathedral was opened with no human soul needing to be sacrificed. In memory of the wolf that died on their behalf, this statue was made and placed in the cathedral.
The truth about the statue is rather more mundane. Art historians confirm it's actually an ancient Roman statue of a bear (not a wolf), dating from around the second century AD and originally part of a fountain (hence the water-spout hole in the animal's stomach). Quite why it was originally put in the cathedral is now lost to history.
The 1 ocher (10 pfennig) notgeld coin of Aachen depicts the Old Woman of Aachen, who is the central figure in the sequel story to the wolf legend. According to this legend, the Devil was super angry with the city for being tricked with the wolf, so he went off to the North Sea, scooped up a huge mound of gravel, and came back to Aachen, planning on burying the entire town under a pile of debris. He was nearly there when, tired and exhausted, he became a bit disoriented and so asked a passing old woman coming the other way down the road how far away it was to Aachen.
The Woman saw through the Devil's flimsy attempt at disguise and realised he meant the town ill, so she lied to him. She showed him her old, worn-out shoes and told him they had been brand new when she bought them in Aachen. She showed him her stale mouldy bread, and told him it had been baked fresh in Aachen before she left.
And so, thinking that Aachen must still be many days down the road and growing tired of his vengeance, the Devil gave up, and dumped his load of gravel right there by the road. Which is why today there is a large hill of gravel called the Lousberg just one kilometre to the north of the city of Aachen. A statue at the scenic lookout on top of Lousberg commemorates this legend.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 01/20/2022 04:40 am
. Maybe a counter stamped coin.
