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

If I were keeping track of all the numismatic history I've learned from erafjel, I think I would be into my 3d or 4th notebook.

I am again in Elbing with you with this 1631 trojak (3 groschen).



I assume that Gustavus Adolphus was thumbing his nose at his cousin, Sigismund III of Poland by taking the design of Sigismund's trojaks and inserting his own bust and titles (of course he also did this with the dreipolkers (poltoraks) we have seen the last few days).
Sigismund had reigned as king of both Poland and Sweden from 1592-1599 but was deposed from the Swedish throne in 1599. He tried to regain it until his death, as did his sons Wladyslaw IV and Jan Casimir, who continued to use Rex Sueciae in their titles.

Lovely taler, 1c5d7n5m!


Wait a minute ... you mean you're not taking notes?



Well, tdziemia, I'm glad you appreciate my snippets of numismatic knowledge. It is mutual - I would have known much less fascinating stuff about Poland-Lithuania and Lorraine, saints, trojaks, szostaks, and much else, had it not been for you.


Minting coins that looked very much like the Polish coins, but had much lower silver content, might have been an attempt to exchange them for Polish trojaks etc of good silver, thus harming Poland's economy and making a profit. Just a theory put forward by some, documentation of that kind of operations is lacking.


Sigismund's problems were that he had his seat in Poland and that he was a Catholic. He was supported by the Swedish nobility - they liked to have the king at a distance - but the Swedish Protestant priesthood and the other members of the royal family worked against him. A bloody battle in 1598 between armies from the two sides was lost by Sigismund, and in 1599 he was deposed.

No more coins from me for a decade or so.

Still lurking in the background, waiting for my opportunity to submit for 1623 and 1622.
I am loving the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth selections and the similarities with surrounding states.

I agree that would be "business as usual" for nearby rivals. By the 1620s there was not much silver in the Polish trojaks already (I am away from home and can't check Gumowski which has the specifications). I will try to post something on it when I can.

Meanwhile, here is a 1630 Silesian 3 kreuzer struck in Glatz/Klodzko with a nice image of Ferdinand III sporting a hipsterish "flip" hairstyle that would fit nicely on the streets of any U.S. city today (the outrageous collar on the other hand is a bit out of fashion ). It is struck under Ferdinand's authority as King of Bohemia, as he does not become emperor for 7 more years.

A 1629 teston of Lorraine struck in the name of Francois II.



Huh? Who is THIS guy? What happened to Duke Charles IV whose coins erafjel and I have been posting?
Francois was the younger brother of Henry II, Duke of Lorraine 1608-1624. Henry had no male heirs, but engineered the marriage of his daughter Nicole to Francois' son Charles. However, he stipuated in his will that Charles could only reign as duke while married to his daughter Nicole as Duchess. So, when Henry died in 1624, Charles and Nicole assumed the titles duke and duchess.

But Francois managed to convince the Lorraine Estates-general that this violated earlier principles of male only succession set forth by Duke Rene, and got himself crowned duke in November, 1625, then immediately abdicated in favor of his son Charles. Charles deposed and abandoned his wife so he could serve as duke in his own right.

However, Francois retained the right to coin, which he did from his residence in Badonvillers, until his death in 1632. So (confusingly) between 1626-1631 there are testons in the name of a reigning Duke of Lorraine (Charles, KM-45) and a former Duke of Lorraine (Francois, KM-35).

1629 Saxony 1 Thaler

&


Interesting story behind this nice coin!


That is correct, according to Swedish numismatic sources. The 1628 dreipolker is denoted "rare".

Since I have no coins from 1628, I will have a little show-and-tell of something else, but related.

1628 was the year the Swedish Navy launched the warship Vasa, the largest and most heavily armed warship built up to that point. Unfortunately, its heavy double cannon decks in combination with lack of experience of how to build such large ships, led to that Vasa sank on its maiden voyage, after only a few minutes at sea. The Baltic Sea is good at preserving ship wrecks (no shipworms), so 333 years later, in 1961, Vasa was salvaged and put at display in a museum, quite intact as it was. The 69 meter long ship is impressive - just look at the picture below. If you ever visit Stockholm, make sure to pay a visit to the Vasa museum, it is well worth it!


Warship Vasa at the Vasa museum.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Anyhow, what I wanted to show is one of the many wooden decorations found on Vasa:

Wooden decoration found on ship Vasa.
Source: Amanda Wuopio blog "Vansinniga Vasa".

Now, who is that and what is he doing? Well, he does have a striking likeness with king Sigismund III of Poland, arch enemy of Swedish king Gustav II Adolf (who ordered the building of Vasa).

Sigismund III of Poland.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

According to Polish custom, a punishment for noblemen who had committed some crime was to humiliate themselves by crawling under a table and bark like a dog. That Polish custom was apparently known well enough in Sweden to be used as a form of entertainment on Vasa. The placement of the decoration also has some significance: This is what the crew would see when they sat on the ship's loo ...