How Far Back Can We Go? Fourth Edition! Ended At 1461 Waiting On 1460 C. E. (A. H. 864)

1645 -- Prussia, 1 groschen:

exactly ! this is what I felt in 1588 some pages ago; but we do not last for ever so this thread cannot last for decades


However, with some good coffee nearby, as I see pepactonius 1545 coin with again IUSTUS EX FIDE VIVIT (with a very good portrait), it seems of interest to further think about the legend

On the previous page, tdziemia made an excellent start: a key event in the life of Albert is that he met Martin Luther in 1523, this formed his political career. Actually Albert wants to express this brotherhood on the very coin we see again today.

IUSTUS EX FIDE VIVIT (a verse from the bible - Romans 1:17) refers to what is known as "Martin Luther's Tower Experience". Like Erasmus in the Netherlands, Luther was preoccupied with the many errors in the so called Latin Vulgate translation (from hebrew and greek texts).

The Vulgate was an important revision of earlier Latin versions made by Jerome in the 5th century. Luther and Erasmus realized that this Vulgate text contained some important interpretation errors. Martin Luther's Tower Experience refers to a key insight in the importance of the holy bible, catalysed by his interpretation of IUSTUS autem EX FIDE VIVIT (the word autem is missing from the legend of the coin)
Vulgate: the righteous shall live by faith
Luther: the one who by faith is righteous shall live

the key change in interpretation is that faith in the Gospel become the active component of the change in a person's life ; one's existence transformed into being righteous by the act of faith

according to the reference below
"Luther makes it clear in several places that this (<"Martin Luther's Tower Experience">), not the Theses, was the pivotal event of his life. The most important of these appears in his Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther's Latin Writings of 1545. Several other mentions of the event are recorded from his "Table Talks," one from 1532 (LW 54:193-194), one from 1538 (LW 54:308-309), and one from 1542-43 (LW 54:442-443)."

http://www.trinitylutheranms.org/Ma...erience.html

When this hypothesis is true, than it is very likely that Luther told Albert about what changed his life. And then, of course, the legend supports the fact mentioned by tdziemia that Albert was a big supporter of Martin Luther.

So with a little digging into history, which is one of the most valuable aspects of coin collecting, it begins to become clear why this strange legend - which is distributed day after day on CCF - surrounds Albert's portrait on the millions of groschen produced during his reign.

Thank you for "the rest of the story," 1c5d7n5m.

edit: for those of you who are interested the Reformation and Martin Luther, you can see one of my Reformation medals at http://goccf.com/t/280475


I am going to post this coin now lest I miss my opportunity: and I haven't got anything after this except ancients, spare a 1382-dated Hungarian denar.

Please continue to post your 1545-dated coins if you have them!

I really like this Groschen and it was quite affordable given its remarkably good state of preservation. As a German States collector, it adds an historic foundation to
my collection of coins from later years.

I've got a few similarly nice coins from WAG and Stephen Album, but this is one of the nicest from anyone.

1544 -- Hungary, 1 denar:

That's a great thaler, 1c5d, with a wonderful image of the saint.
So, instead of political history, we can share a few words on medieval Christian iconography!
Even if there were not such a specific legend, we would know this figure is a saint because of the halo. Furthermore, we know he is a martyr because he holds a palm frond in his hand. Many posters here will be familiar with the Salzburg thalers (and smaller coins) bearing an image of St. Rupert, who was not a martyr, hence no palm.
Last, there are clues about the details of the person's life. St. Stephen was a deacon of the early church, so he is shown with the clothing and the haircut that were typical of this position in medieval times. Finally, for martyrs, there are sometimes details about the manner in which they died. St. Stephen was stoned to death, and is sometimes shown holding three stones. I think Halberstadt was issuing coins with images of St. Stephen back to at least bracteates of the 13th century. One could have a large collection just of these different types!

Another interesting back-story! Here is my contribution for today: a Schilling from the Livonian Order of Reval dated 1544 AD. It is attributed as Saurma 5163.

Nice opening for 1543, pepactonius

the curious fact is the imperial city of Besançon continued to issue coins with the portrait of Charles and a legend mentioning Carolus V until ±1650, this is a century after the death of the emperor; I wonder why they did this; perhaps related to political friction between the Spanish and German parts of the empire (the city was located in the frontier area)

see this website for examples
http://www.coingallery.de/KarlV/Besancon_E.htm