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Moderator
 United States
34397 Posts |
This past week I was travelling in Europe and happened to find myself in Waldshut Germany. Anyway, I was surprised to look up at a building on the main street of this village and see an image of the Wild Man—I've posted a pic below. Seems I cannot get away from numismatics even if I try. As many of you may know, the Wild Man is used as a design element for coins from various City States of Germany (e.g. Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and Brunswick-Luneburg-Callenberg). In doing a little "research" on Wikipedia, it seems that the Wildman was used as a symbol of mining in Germany during the late medieval and Renaissance time periods. "The town of Wildemann in the Upper Harz was founded in 1529 by miners who, according to legend, met a wild man and wife when they ventured into the wilds of the Harz range." The Wild Man appears in both artwork and literature and is typically shown to be nearly naked, but with a thick coat of hair. In this way, the Wild Man is similar to a satyr or faun in Greek Mythology. If you are interested in a little additional reading on the Wild Man, I recommend looking here: http://coinsite.com/wildman-vilda-hiya-coinage/Also, someone has started a NGC Registry Set of their Wildmen: https://coins.www.collectors-societ...aspx?s=20282So here is my challenge to you: post pics of your coins with a Wildman or Wildmen on them. In looking through my collection, I can find eight examples—all copper except for one in silver. That is the coin in the pics below: a 12 Marien-groschen minted for Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel in 1705.    "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
Edited by Spence
07/04/2016 12:48 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Are you sure that's not a slimmed down, nudist Santa on your coin?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1949 Posts |
The Wildman is one of my favorite motifs in all of numismatics, someone sent me a link to a great scholarly article about hte history of the Wildman I will post when I can dig through my email...
Some of my favorite Wildman designs are on metal Notgeld issues, and the ones with the Wildman and tree are always really neat, especially on silver pieces
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Moderator
 United States
34397 Posts |
Quote:
slimmed down, nudist Santa  Quote:
link to a great scholarly article about the history of the Wildman I will post when I can dig through my email...  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
Edited by Spence
07/04/2016 1:45 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1949 Posts |
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Valued Member
Germany
303 Posts |
Even though I do not collect coins from Brunswick (only some Saxon duchies and Prussian coins) I enjoy looking at them. I know that there is a Prussian Thaler though, minted around 1800 that shows two persons looking like wildmen to me.
However, nice coin :)
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Moderator
United States
34397 Posts |
@jdmern, super link. Good reading for on the plane!
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
That's wild, man.  |
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Valued Member
United States
136 Posts |
Here is something interesting.  There are records of a man born in 1547 with hypertrichosis. Wiki has a bit of info on him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrus_GonsalvusHe was quite an attraction and some of his childen where given away to dukes in europe as pets Petrus Gonsalvus was not considered fully human and the people where fascinated to see someone who looked as if he is bridging the gap between animal and human. Netflix still has a documentary about him online. Its called The real beauty and the beast |
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
1194 Posts |
The wildman figures also on medals. I ll post some pics of 19 th century medals when I am back home.albert
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Moderator
United States
34397 Posts |
Quote:
I ll post some pics of 19 th century medals when I am back home Sounds great! In the meanwhile, here is a pfennig from Brunswick-Luneburg-Callenberg. It is dated 1780 and contains the mintmaster initials CES. It looks to me like this coin has spent considerable time in the ground.   "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Valued Member
United States
462 Posts |
Here is my 24 Mariengroschen which is up for sale.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1429 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
34397 Posts |
great wildmen!  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
1194 Posts |
as promised, here is my Wildman . I believe it is a proof ,made by the artist on tin , the reverse is blank with rests of paper . The medal is made by François de Hondt , an artist from Bruges (Belgium , 1786-1862 ). He made this medal in 1828 , 2 years before the independence of Belgium , for the Royal School of Fine Arts in 'sHertogenbosch , now in the Netherlands . The Wildman is represented with his right hand on the crowned coat of arms of 'sHertogenbosch. On the left , there is an orangetree , as symbol of the house of Orange-Nassau , the family of the king of the Netherlands. ref : J.Dirks,Ned.Penningen,p 241 , nr 300. 52 mm , 19.8 gr . albert.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1429 Posts |
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Replies: 21 / Views: 7,112 |
Posted 07/04/2016 1:38 pm
